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George Bush confirms making ?good progress? on North Korea
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George Bush confirms making ?good progress? on North Korea
US President George W. Bush, adopting a policy shift to re-energize talks with North Korea, said yesterday the United States and its allies were making good progress on a peaceful solution to the Korean nuclear crisis. Bush told reporters he would share ideas on how to give security guarantees to North Korea. ?We?re making good progress on peacefully solving the issue with North Korea,? Bush said. ?And I will share ideas and listen to ideas from President Roh about how to move the process forward.?
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, who has wanted the United States to make a gesture to jumpstart the stalled talks with the North, thanked Bush. He praised Bush?s efforts ?to make process in the areas related to North Korea? and expressed hope six-party talks ? which also include Russia, China, Japan and North Korea ? would resume ?in the near future.?
The North Korean crisis was a leading topic as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit that brought Bush and Roh here was opening in the Thai capital. Except for North Korea, leaders of the other five countries involved in the talks are in Bangkok. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he wanted to discuss North Korea in bilateral talks with China, Russia and South Korea and also at the summit today.
?Verifiable progress?</B>
US officials said a final summit communique was likely to include a reference that the Korean Peninsula be nuclear weapons free. This was short of the separate statement that had been issued at APEC last year and which Japan had wanted this year.
A senior Bush administration official said North Korea could get some of what it is seeking under the arrangement before its nuclear programme is completely dismantled, so long as it makes ?verifiable progress? toward meeting US demands.
US Secretary of State, Colin Powell was consulting his counterparts from China, Japan, Russia and South Korea on what form the security assurances should take. ?We?re saying, in effect, that we have to see progress before we can take steps. We?re not saying that everything has to be done before we will do anything. In fact, we?re saying just the opposite,? the senior administration official said.
Powell said on Fox News Sunday that US officials have some ideas for security assurances that would not be a treaty or non-aggression pact but would give North Korea the kind of assurances it has been wanting. One possibility was a simple written statement signed by all six parties.
?That?s certainly one model that can be looked at but of course it?s something that we would have to discuss with all six parties so I would not want to pre-judge right now what other parties might be willing to do,? Powell said.
Although he has resisted the concept of security guarantees for months, Bush presented the idea to Chinese President Hu Jintao after deciding on the new approach this past weekend at his Camp David retreat.
Another senior US official said the Chinese were anxious to hold another round of six-party talks before the end of the year. Mid-November was seen as a target period. No talks have been scheduled with North Korea since an inconclusive round between the six countries in Beijing in August.
Bush, whose war with Iraq has led to a deadly postwar period of daily attacks on US troops even while progress is being made to bring the country back to life, has been pursuing a diplomatic approach to North Korea over its weapons of mass destruction. The CIA believes the North has produced at least one or two nuclear weapons.
Steve Holland Adam Entous
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