A rchive Date
[ 10-01-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/01/08/9743-ap.html
New Mexico governor intermediary in talks with North Korea
Thurs, January 9, 2003
WASHINGTON (AP) - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former UN ambassador, became a surprise intermediary between the United States and North Korea, meeting Thursday night in his state with two North Korean envoys.
Tension escalated late Thursday, when North Korea's official news agency announced the Asian country's withdrawal from the global nuclear arms-control treaty. Leaving the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty will free North Korea from safeguard obligations to the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, the news agency said.
"The withdrawal from the NPT is a legitimate self-defensive measure taken against the U.S. moves to stifle" North Korea, it said.
North Korea has repeatedly accused the United States of plotting to invade it.
The announcement came as the United States was awaiting a reply from North Korea about its decision to open dialogue to seek a peaceful resolution of the country's nuclear weapons development.
While Richardson met with the North Korean envoys, the U.S. administration appeared to expand on its demands. Officials said even if talks resumed, North Korea must do more than stop its efforts to produce plutonium and enrich uranium.
"The next step is for North Korea to completely dismantle its nuclear weapons program," said Sean McCormack, a White House spokesman.
Separately, a senior administration official said the White House wants North Korea's nuclear facilities at Yongbyon taken apart.
The White House said North Korea, not the United States, initiated the unusual diplomatic channel through Richardson, a Democrat.
"The only message we expect is what America's position is, that we are ready to talk, and that we will not negotiate," presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
"That's the U.S. position. You should not see this as anything beyond that."
Richardson walked the two officials out of the governor's mansion after what Richardson's spokesman described as a working dinner and the North Koreans left in a white sports utility vehicle, with neither them nor Richardson commenting. They were to meet again Friday.
"I want to be able to help my country," Richardson, who was sworn in Jan. 1 as governor, said earlier.
He visited North Korea on two diplomatic missions while he was still a member of Congress during the 1990s.
The initiative for the meeting was taken by North Korea's deputy UN ambassador, Han Song Ryol. It came after meetings held Monday and Tuesday among U.S., South Korean and Japanese officials on the North Korean nuclear situation.
The United States offered in a joint statement to hold talks with North Korea on the dispute over its resumption of a nuclear weapons program.
North Korean diplomats require U.S. permission to leave New York City, and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell granted it Wednesday to facilitate the talks in Santa Fe, N.M. A second diplomat, Mun Jong Chol, was joining Han.
Richardson said before the meeting: "I support the administration's policy. I am going to try to be helpful."
"I am not an official negotiator. The administration has many channels that they are pursuing with the North Koreans."
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Powell went over U.S. policy toward North Korea with Richardson. The governor has had previous contacts with Han.
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said the U.S. administration expected Richardson to stick to President George W. Bush's policy.
"The only message we expect is what America's position is, that we are ready to talk, and that we will not negotiate," Fleischer said.
"That's the U.S. position. You should not see this as anything beyond that."
A senior administration official, asking not to be identified, said Thursday night Richardson was not asked to pass any messages to the North Koreans on behalf of the administration. The official said the administration was looking for signs of North Korean willingness during the meetings to dismantle its nuclear program.
For Richardson, the role of diplomatic troubleshooter is not new.
In 1996, as a New Mexico congressman, he went to North Korea and helped secure the release of an American who was detained for three months on spy charges. In 1994, he helped arrange the freedom of a U.S. soldier whose helicopter had strayed into North Korea.
He also undertook diplomatic forays into Sudan, Cuba and Iraq during his House days. He was sometimes known at the "U.S. ambassador to rogue states."
He served both as UN ambassador and energy secretary for former president Bill Clinton. North Korea may have turned to him after recalling the warmer ties it enjoyed with Washington during that period.
North Korea welcomed former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright to its capital Pyongyang, in October 2000. Clinton considered a visit in the final weeks of his presidency but decided against it. Just a year after Clinton left office, Bush designated North Korea as part of an "axis of evil."
The Bush administration contends North Korea acted in bad faith during the Clinton era by carrying out a secret nuclear-weapons program in violation of agreements, even as it was displaying friendship toward Washington.
At the State Department, Boucher said the United States is insisting North Korea "promptly and verifiably" dismantle its nuclear weapons programs.
The Bush administration has been hoping international pressure on North Korea will force it to reconsider its nuclear program.
North Korea appears to have scant support from the outside world but the U.S. ambassador to Russia, Alexander Vershbow, said in Washington on Thursday that Russia is not doing enough to influence the country.
Russia could offer to help North Korea with its energy needs, Vershbow said in remarks at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington research group.
Earlier on Thursday, North Korea agreed to cabinet-level talks with South Korea that could include attempts to resolve the nuclear standoff but suggested pushing back the proposed date a week.
The talks would be the highest-level dialogue between the sides since the crisis erupted last month.
North Korea alarmed the world in December by taking steps to reactivate nuclear facilities frozen under a deal with Washington in 1994 and then expelling UN monitors.
South Korea had proposed holding its meetings with North Korean officials next Tuesday through Friday in Seoul. The North indicated Thursday it wanted to meet a week later, the South Korean Unification Ministry said.
South Korea has said it wants to use the meetings to discuss defusing the nuclear dispute.
Meanwhile, other countries were stepping up efforts to push for a diplomatic solution.
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin met his Chinese counterpart, Tang Jiaxuan, for 3½ hours in Beijing on Thursday and was told that China wants to see a diplomatic solution to the dispute. China is North Korea's strongest ally.
"Tang Jiaxuan stressed that at this stage, it is most important to prevent further escalation" of tensions over North Korea, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was in Moscow - also a North Korea ally - for talks with Russian officials Thursday on the dispute.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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