NORTH KOREA: North Korea blamed war games between South Korea and the United States yesterday for a delay in resuming six-party talks on its nuclear weapons programmes, but said negotiations could resume in the week of September 12th.
The talks had been scheduled to resume this week, but a spokesman for North Korea's foreign ministry said Pyongyang thought it best to wait until after the joint US/South Korean drills were over to resume the nuclear discussions.
"Our position is to resume six-way talks in the week of September 12th by when some of the dust of war exercises has subsided . . . this is all we can offer at this stage," the spokesman told KCNA (the state's official news agency), according to the Yonhap news agency.
North Korean foreign minister Paek Nam-sun said earlier yesterday the fourth round of talks involving the two Koreas, the US, Russia, Japan and China might resume "just before the end of September". "If things are going well, mid-September is possible," Mr Paek said, speaking through a translator to reporters accompanying Thai foreign minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon on a visit to the North Korean capital.
The fourth round of talks aimed at persuading Pyongyang to scrap its atomic weapons programmes in return for security guarantees and aid went into recess on August 7th.