Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao (left) shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il at Pyongyang Airport.Kim Jong Il (right) told Wen Jiabao that he was willing to take part in multilateral talks, state media reported
South Koreans watch a TV news program about Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, second from left, meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, second from right, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009. North Korea is in the final stage of restoring its nuclear facilities, a news report said Tuesday, as Kim expressed a conditional willingness to end Pyongyang's boycott of international nuclear talks.
Delegations from China (right) and North Korea (left) meet in Pyongyang
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (R) shakes hands with Kim Jong Il, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), during a meeting in Pyongyang, capital of the DPRK, Oct. 5, 2009.
North Korea is in the final stage of restoring its nuclear facilities, a news report said Tuesday, as leader Kim Jong Il expressed a conditional willingness to end Pyongyang's boycott of international nuclear talks.
South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities reached the conclusion after scrutinizing about 10 atomic facilities in North Korea since April when the communist regime vowed to restart its nuclear program in anger over a U.N. rebuke of its long-range rocket launch.
Pyongyang claimed the launch was a peaceful attempt to put a satellite into orbit, but the liftoff was widely condemned as a test of the North's long-range missile technology.
The report came as North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao that his country was prepared to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks depending on progress in its two-way negotiations with the United States.
Kim's comments, carried by official North Korean and Chinese media, were the clearest sign yet that Pyongyang was readying to resume the six-nation talks it withdrew from after conducting missile tests in April and a second nuclear test in May.
The stalled talks involve China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the U.S.
In their meeting late Monday, Kim said that North Korea "is willing to attend multilateral talks, including the six-party talks, depending on the progress in its talks with the United States," China's Xinhua News Agency said in a report issued early Tuesday.
North Korea has long sought one-on-one negotiations with the U.S., claiming that it was compelled to develop nuclear weapons to cope with what it calls the "U.S. hostile policy" and "nuclear threats" against the regime.
Yonhap also cited the government source as saying that North Korea has conducted missile engine tests a few times recently on the country's west coast at a new missile launch site that is in the final stage of construction.
News reports said earlier this year that the North had moved a long-range missile to the new site for a possible test launch, but Yonhap said Tuesday that the missile has been moved elsewhere. The report did not elaborate.
Meanwhile, South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported that the youngest son of Kim Jong Il could be officially named an heir to the communist dynasty as early as next year. The paper cited a South Korean government report to a ruling party lawmaker.
Talk of who will take over North Korea after Kim Jong Il intensified after Kim reportedly suffered a stroke last year. The third son, Kim Jong Un, is widely believed to be the favorite.
China Premier visit to NKorea
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is rich in content, weighty in outcome and significant in meaning, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Tuesday.
Yang stressed that the three-day visit had achieved two major results -- further deepening the traditional China-DPRK friendship and boosting their good-neighborly relations of cooperation as well as promoting the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a positive way.
As an important country in Northeast Asia and a host of the six-party talks, China has once again played its due role and shouldered its due responsibility, he said.
The foreign minister said that China and the DPRK are two friendly neighbors, and this year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations and is the China-DPRK Friendship Year.
Wen was greeted at the airport by DPRK's top leader Kim Jong Il,top legislator Kim Yong Nam, and his DPRK counterpart Kim Yong Il.Hundreds of thousands of residents in Pyongyang gave the Chinese premier a warm welcome along the city's streets.
During their talks, both the Chinese and the DPRK sides agreed that the China-DPRK friendship forged by old generation revolutionaries is in line with the common wishes and fundamental interests of both the Chinese and DPRK people, said the foreign minister. Premier Wen had sincere and in-depth talks with the DPRK leaders on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and made much headway on the promotion of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, Yang said.
The commitment to the objective of making the peninsula nuclear free, and to maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia as a whole, serves the interests of all the parties concerned, including the DPRK, Wen was quoted as saying.
To realize denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and consultation is a common understanding of the international community and the only way to solve the peninsula's nuclear issue, Wen said.
China is willing to make concerted efforts with the DPRK and other parties concerned to contribute to realizing the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and maintaining peace, stability and development in the Northeast Asian region, Premier Wen said.
Through bilateral meetings between the DPRK and the United States, the hostile relations between the two countries must turn into peaceful ones. The DPRK is willing to attend multilateral talks, including the six-party talks, based on the progress in the DPRK-U.S. talks, the DPRK side said.
US targets banks in effort to restart NKorea talks.Obama administration also learn from previous Bush Administrator how to force NKorea into talk. The Obama administration's push to settle a tense nuclear standoff with North Korea is being spearheaded not by soldiers on a battlefield or big-name diplomats but by government officials knocking on the doors of banks throughout Asia.
American officials are traveling around Asia, targeting private banks that might have North Korean ties. They hope to block money that could be used for missiles and nuclear bombs and, ultimately, to drive North Korea back to stalled disarmament talks.
The strategy is simple, according to interviews with past and current U.S. officials responsible for implementing it. And, they say, it works, which has not been the case with tortuous nuclear negotiations with the North.
The officials tell bankers that North Korea uses its accounts to hide counterfeiting of U.S. currency, to launder money, to smuggle cigarettes and drugs. The banks could face potentially dire consequences if they are seen as helping illicit activities.
U.S. officials say bankers find their visits difficult to ignore.
"It's having an effect. We think that the word is out," said Philip Goldberg, President Barack Obama's point man on implementing new United Nations sanctions on North Korea. The effort encourages banks to "give heightened scrutiny to any transaction that may be coming through with a North Korean label on it."
Coincidence or not, as the United States steps up financial pressure, the North has begun making conciliatory moves, showing a new willingness to resume nuclear talks.
The Obama administration can point to a U.N. resolution that decrees financial sanctions against designated entities that may be involved in missile or nuclear weapons financing or proliferation. Victor Cha, Bush's former senior Asia adviser, said the resolution makes "a huge difference" in getting banks' attention.
The White House also has at its disposal a powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of dealing with the North: the story of Banco Delta Asia, a bank in the Chinese territory of Macau accused of helping North Korea launder money and other illicit activities.
The threat of the U.S. blacklisting BDA in 2005 effectively led to the North being severed from the international financial system, as institutions worried about jeopardizing their U.S. connections voluntarily stopped dealing with the bank and the North.
Even if they have little risk of being blacklisted, financial institutions try to avoid activities that would tarnish their reputations and scare away current or future customers.
---
---
Related Posts
- World must stand together, Obama tells UN- Security council approve Non Foliferation of Nuclear Weapon signed.
- Missile tests underscore the threat Iran poses in Mideast-Isreal ,US bases in the Middle East, and southeastern Europe are within range-To provoke USA
- Iran secret nuclear plant exposed. Iran said nothing new now allow IAEA to inspect the facility.
- Exclusive: Salehi sheds light on purpose of nascent nuclear site
- Ahmadinejad says Iran ready for more sanctions-But ready for face to face talk.
- North Korea Underground Nuclear Test - The Mechanism of Underground Nuclear Tests
- Muslim and Jew protest against Ahmednijah Iran New president in New york U.N
- Iran very close to produce Nuclear weapon-may expedite nuclear bom USA said.
- Iran test-fires short-range missiles
- Syringe attacks spark new protest in XinJiang Chinese city
0 comments:
Post a Comment