SOSNOVY BOR – North Korean leader Kim Jong-il promised yesterday to consider suspending nuclear arms tests and production if international talks on Pyongyang’s atomic programme resume, a Kremlin spokeswoman said.
The pledge, made at talks with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, was intended to improve the chances of reviving the six-nation, aid-for-disarmament talks that collapsed when North Korea walked out in 2008.
Diplomats, however, may treat it with caution as they say Pyongyang has flouted past agreements over its nuclear weapons ambitions.
“Kim Jong-il expressed readiness to return to six-party talks without preconditions,” Mr Medvedev’s spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said after the president met Mr Kim at a military base in the Siberian town of Sosnovy Bor near Lake Baikal. “In the course of the talks, the North Koreans will be ready to resolve the issue of imposing a moratorium on testing and production of missile and nuclear weaponry.”
The reclusive North Korean leader, who arrived in nearby Ulan-Ude on Tuesday in an armoured train and wore a khaki military uniform for the talks, did not speak to reporters.
Ms Timakova’s comments made clear North Korea wanted to discuss a moratorium only after six-nation talks resume with Russia, China, Japan, South Korea and the United States. Washington and Seoul say it must agree to a moratorium before talks reconvene.
Seoul, Washington and Tokyo say they are willing to resume the talks but Pyongyang must first show it is serious about denuclearising. Mr Medvedev said progress had been made on a proposal to build a natural gas pipeline to South Korea that would pass through the North. – (Reuters)