CHINA: Chief U.S. negotiator to the Six-Party talks Christopher Hill says North Korea needs to start implementing agreement reached in 2005

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said on Thursday (December 21) North Korea should start implementing the agreement reached in 2005, that promised aid to North Korea and security assurances in return for nuclear disarmament. "We need to get on with task of implementing the September agreement and we do believe it that there some elements of that September agreement that should begin to get implemented even this week. And, what I don't want is a situation where we have met this week, we have had numerous discussions and we have nothing to be implemented," he said. Hill said an agreement could be reached on Friday (December 22), offering the first hint of clear progress in the talks -- between the United States, the two Koreas, Russia, Japan and host China -- that resumed on Monday (December 18) after over a year's break. However, Hill cautioned that differences could still scuttle a deal, and said talks had now entered the difficult phase of implementation, rather than broad principles. The veteran U.S. negotiator said North Korea was particularly pre-occupied with the financial restrictions that Washington invoked last year after accusing Pyongyang of counterfeiting U.S. cash and laundering illicit earnings. "I think they (North Koreans) have a great deal of problem separating that (financial issues), and so it is difficult to engage them on other subject when they came in with a very strong view on financial issues, so this is , let me just leave it by saying, this is a challenge we face," he said. On Monday (December 18), North Korea's chief negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan, laid out a sweeping set of conditions, including lifting U.N. sanctions and the U.S. financial crackdown. But the North appears to have taken a more pragmatic tack in subsequent talks. Hill warned that insisting on financial issues is just another attempt to divert attention from the real problem which is October 9th nuclear test conducted by the North Korea. "The urgency of this whole problem is the fact that on October 9, the DPRK (North Korea) exploded a nuclear device. this is a very urgent problem and I would rather not obscure that urgent problem by talking about finances", Hill said. A U.S. Treasury Department negotiator said special talks on that dispute were useful but that it was far from settled. Those negotiations may continue in New York in January. The negotiations in Beijing resumed on Monday (December 18) after over a year's break and only 10 weeks after North Korea held its first nuclear test, drawing regional condemnation and U.N. sanctions.

ITN Source | December 21, 2006

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