U.S. urges N. Korea to abide by multi-party denuclearization deal: State Dept.

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 (Yonhap) -- The United States Tuesday urged North Korea to
return to the six-party talks and abide by the multiparty deal Pyongyang signed
for its denuclearization.
"I'll say as a matter of principle that reprocessing plutonium is contrary to
North Korea's own commitments that it committed to in the 2005 Joint Statement,
and also would be a violation of various U.N. Security Council resolutions,"
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said. "I think everybody should be careful
and ratchet down the rhetoric and not take any actions that would contribute to
tension in the region."
Kelly was responding to North Korea's announcement earlier in the day that it has
completed reprocessing all 8,000 spent fuel rods extracted from its only
operating nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, north of its capital, Pyongyang, and made
achievements in weaponizing the plutonium.
The reactor and other nuclear facilities were being dismantled under the 2005
deal signed by the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia until early this
year, when Pyongyang boycotted the six-party talks, citing U.N. sanctions for its
nuclear and missile tests.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il recently agreed to return to the six-party talks
pending the outcome of bilateral talks with the U.S., extending an invitation to
Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, which
Washington is still weighing.
Reports said that Sung Kim, special envoy for six-party talks, and Ri Gun,
director general of the North American affairs bureau of North Korea's foreign
ministry, reached an agreement for Bosworth to visit Pyongyang later this month.
The diplomats met on the margins of academic seminars in San Diego and New York
last week.
Kelly said that Kim and Ri "did have a useful discussion," adding, "We took the
opportunity in that meeting to reaffirm our commitment to a multilateral solution
to the tension in the region and a resumption of the six-party talks."
The spokesman reiterated Washington's position that it is ready to talk to North
Korea bilaterally within the context of the six-party talks, but added, "We have
not decided on when and where we will have these bilateral talks."
hdh@yna.co.kr
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