- (AFP) - US President George W. Bush rejected a North
Korean offer to freeze its nuclear program, insisting the communist state's
suspected weapons of mass destruction must be dismantled.
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- Bush's blunt response added to doubts that more negotiations
will be held this year between the North, the United States and four other
nations seeking an end to the Korean peninsula's latest nuclear crisis.
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- North Korea earlier offered to freeze its nuclear facilities
if the United States took it off a US list of nations accused of sponsoring
terrorism and resumed suspended US oil deliveries.
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- Bush gave his answer after talks with China's Premier
Wen Jiabao at the White House.
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- "We spent a lot of time talking about North Korea
here," Bush said.
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- "The goal of the United States is not for a freeze
of the nuclear program; the goal is to dismantle a nuclear weapons program
in a verifiable and irreversible way."
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- Bush said "that is a clear message that we are sending
to the North Koreans."
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- He added that the United States will continue to work
with China and other countries "to resolve this issue peacefully."
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- A senior Bush aide later said on condition of anonymity
that Pyongyang's offer to "freeze" its nuclear program was not
specifically addressed but that both sides hoped six-nation talks could
begin again soon.
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- China hosted the first round of talks in Beijing in August
that failed to make significant progress toward ending the crisis.
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- "We share a mutual goal, and that is for the Korean
Peninsula to be nuclear weapons-free," Bush said. "I thank the
premier for China starting the six-party talks, and I will continue those
talks. I think they're very important."
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- Wen remained silent about North Korea. But in New York
Monday he had said the US and North Korean positions were "getting
closer."
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- North Korea said it would only return to the to six-nation
talks after the United States agreed to its latest demands.
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- "There is no reason whatsoever for the US not to
accept the principle of simultaneous actions if it sincerely wants to co-exist
with the DPRK (North Korea) peacefully," a foreign ministry spokesman
said through the official Korean Central News Agency.
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- "The resumption of the six-way talks in the future
entirely depends on whether an agreement will be reached on the DPRK-proposed
first-phase step or not."
-
- The North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said Pyongyang
was deeply disappointed by the US attitude after Washington rejected a
North Korean proposal last week for simultaneous measures to ease tensions.
-
- Amidst a new diplomatic burst of activity, a US-backed
statement that could be adopted at new six-nation talks has also been sent
to North Korea for consideration.
-
- Meanwhile, a delegation of diplomats from the European
Union left for Pyongyang and was expected to put across the message that
Europe also wants a quick resumption of the talks between North Korea,
the United States, China, South Korea, Russia and Japan.
-
- But some of the participating countries feel time is
running out for talks this year.
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- South Korea's top envoy to the negotiations, Deputy Foreign
Minister Lee Soo-Hyuck, indicated new talks were unlikely this year.
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- Lee told a Seoul radio station that South Korea, Japan
and the United States had agreed that if talks were to be held by the end
of the year, they would have to be convened next week.
-
- He said the three had agreed the week of December 15
would be the only available time this year.
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- In recent weeks North Korea has been urging the United
States to accept the principle of simultaneous action as a framework for
resolving the standoff.
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- It proposes that North Korean promises to renounce nuclear
weapons development, to allow inspections, and eventually, to scrap its
nuclear facilities. In return, Pyongyang wants a security guarantee from
the United States, economic aid and diplomatic relations.
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- The US-backed counterproposal focuses on "coordinated
steps," according to a senior South Korean official. Washington is
maintaining a central demand that North Korea scrap its nuclear programs
in a verifiable manner, as other "coordinated" steps, including
a written security guarantee, are made.
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