US/NORTH KOREA: Six-nation talks to resolve the nuclear standoff on the Korean peninsula have kicked off with an offer of economic aid and possible security guarantees by the United States if North Korea promised to abandon its plans to develop atomic weapons, writes Clifford Coonan in Beijing.
But North Korea, which wants its security concerns addressed and aid to boost its almost bankrupt economy, stuck to its line that Washington must abandon its hardline approach before the Stalinist state will cease its nuclear weapons programme.
Top negotiators from the two Koreas, the US, Russia, Japan and host China met at Beijing's Diaoyutai State Guesthouse to open the four-day talks. The start of the session was shown live on television in China, which is acting as honest broker in the talks.
The US envoy, Mr James Kelly, said his country was ready for serious discussion and had a proposal to offer. "A focus on the common objective, and practical and effective means to attain it, will lead in a very positive direction with new political, economic and diplomatic possibilities," he said.
The New York Times reported that Washington's compromise proposal might include a provisional guarantee not to invade North Korea, as well as aid.
North Korea's top negotiator, Mr Kim Gye Gwan, insisted his country's nuclear weapons were there as protection against US attacks and he restated the North's call for Washington to drop its "hostile policy".
"If the United States gives up its hostile policy toward us . . . we are prepared to give up in a transparent way all plans related to nuclear weapons," Mr Kim said. Pyongyang wants Washington to give up its demand that the Communist state give up its nuclear weapons in "a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner", casting doubt on whether the talks will end the standoff.
Mr Kim also said Washington must accept the North's demand for aid in exchange for a nuclear freeze - the US feels Pyongyang should not be rewarded for initiating a programme it was not meant to start in the first place.
The crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions has been going on since 2002, when Washington said North Korea was working on a secret programme to enrich uranium for weapons, violating an international agreement.