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US wants 'clear signal' from NKorea over nuclear declaration

SKorea reviews agreements due to NKorea nuke deadlock
South Korea will review inter-Korean economic projects agreed at an October summit due to deadlock in a nuclear disarmament deal, the minister responsible for relations with Pyongyang said Monday. "In implementing the agreements, we must consider a change of circumstances," Unification Minister Kim Ha-Joong told a parliamentary confirmation hearing. North Korea last year signed the deal to abandon its nuclear weapons. But the process is at an impasse while awaiting a North Korean declaration of all its nuclear programmes. At the summit, the South pledged help to repair the North's dilapidated railways. A cross-border railway cargo service started in December for the first time since the 1950-1953 Korean War. The two sides also agreed to develop a joint economic zone around the North's Haeju city on the west coast. Since South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak took office last month, inter-Korean relations have been soured by a US-South Korea joint military exercise. Lee, a conservative, pledged to take a firmer line with Pyongyang and to press the regime on its human rights record. North Korea has warned that inter-Korean relations might slip back to confrontation. Conservatives in the South want the government to stop providing unlimited aid to North Korea. They have criticised previous governments for giving too much while gaining little in return. But Kim said South Korea should push ahead with humanitarian aid to its impoverished neighbour.
by Staff Writers
Seoul (AFP) March 10, 2008
North Korea must send a "clear signal" to fully declare its nuclear programmes in order to get itself removed from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, the US ambassador here said Monday.

Ambassador Alexander Vershbow's demand to South Korea came as the six-party nuclear disarmament talks on North Korea were stuck in a stalemate over Pyongyang's complaint over the list.

North Korea last year signed a landmark deal to abandon all its nuclear weapons in exchange for badly needed energy and economic aid and major security and diplomatic benefits.

But the disarmament process has been in a stalemate since North Korea missed an end-2007 deadline to declare all its nuclear programmes.

Pyongyang has said it submitted a full list in November, but Washington insists it is still awaiting a complete declaration, including a full account of a suspected covert uranium enrichment programme.

Last week, North Korea's ruling communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun blamed Washington for the deadlock, saying the US has yet to start removing the North from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.

"We aren't able to do that until we see a clear signal from the North Koreans that they are going to do their part with regards to the declaration," Vershbow told a news conference.

"They have not yet shown us even the elements of what will constitute a complete and concrete declaration," the US ambassador to South Korea said.

He said Washington wants to push forward the disarmament process talks, which group the United States, both Koreas, China, Japan and Russia.

But he said North Korea was still "in a wait-and-see mode" in making progress in the six-party talks, after South Korea's new conservative government took over last month.

"It is clear that North Korea has to adjust, in fact, to much closer alignment between Washington and Seoul, as we move forward to the six-party talks," Vershbow said.

Last week, US State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said he hoped to seek a complete North Korean declaration in "the not too distant future" as US top negotiator Christopher Hill hoped six-party talks could resume this month.

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Outside View: Concerts and nukes
Moscow (UPI) Mar 07, 2008
The United States and China normalized bilateral relations with the so-called ping-pong diplomacy, when the exchange of ping-pong players between them in the 1970s encouraged an improvement in their political ties.







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