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China Pushes North Korea and U.S. Talks
By JOSEPH KAHN
UANGZHOU, China, July 17 — China stepped up its efforts to broker negotiations between the United States and North Korea today, dispatching a senior diplomat to Washington and urging both sides to revive a discarded 1994 accord on ending North Korea's nuclear program.
China's unusual public campaign suggested that it intends to play a more assertive mediating role in a new round of talks, which some experts say could be held as soon as August, probably in the Chinese capital of Beijing.
"China hopes to see the quick resumption of the peace talks," Kong Quan, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a news briefing today. "The purpose of the Beijing talks would be to seek a final settlement to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."
Deputy Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo left Beijing today for Washington, where he is expected to meet with Bush administration officials to discuss terms for new talks. Mr. Dai had just returned from a four-day visit to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said on Wednesday that the United States was open to discussions with North Korea. He said he expected to see very soon the reopening of a diplomatic channel.
If talks do get under way, China indicated that it would urge the United States and North Korea to return to the 1994 accord, known as the Agreed Framework, negotiated by the Clinton administration to try to stop North Korea from developing nuclear weapons.
Under the accord, the United States and its allies agreed to provide fuel to North Korea and help it build two light-water nuclear reactors. North Korea agreed to shut down its existing nuclear reactor and abandon all plans to build atomic bombs.
After taking office in 2001, the Bush administration expressed skepticism about the agreement, which collapsed after North Korea acknowledged that it had been pursuing a nuclear arms program in violation of the 1994 accord. North Korea has since fired up its five-megawatt nuclear plant, pulled out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and expelled inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Administration officials also said this week that North Korea boasted that it had begun reprocessing 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods to make plutonium. If that is true, the country could begin building a small arsenal of nuclear weapons within months.
Some administration officials have rejected the possibility of reviving the 1994 agreement as the basis for future negotiations, saying that it amounted to blackmail.
North Korea, administration officials say, must unilaterally and verifiably give up its nuclear program before the United States will discuss economic or diplomatic incentives.
The Chinese, however, say that the earlier agreement should remain the basis for new negotiations.
"The 1994 Agreed Framework played a role for a certain period of time, for 10 years," Mr. Kong said. "We hope that the agreement can be continued, but it will be up to the parties concerned."
By JOSEPH KAHN
UANGZHOU, China, July 17 — China stepped up its efforts to broker negotiations between the United States and North Korea today, dispatching a senior diplomat to Washington and urging both sides to revive a discarded 1994 accord on ending North Korea's nuclear program.
China's unusual public campaign suggested that it intends to play a more assertive mediating role in a new round of talks, which some experts say could be held as soon as August, probably in the Chinese capital of Beijing.
"China hopes to see the quick resumption of the peace talks," Kong Quan, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a news briefing today. "The purpose of the Beijing talks would be to seek a final settlement to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."
Deputy Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo left Beijing today for Washington, where he is expected to meet with Bush administration officials to discuss terms for new talks. Mr. Dai had just returned from a four-day visit to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said on Wednesday that the United States was open to discussions with North Korea. He said he expected to see very soon the reopening of a diplomatic channel.
If talks do get under way, China indicated that it would urge the United States and North Korea to return to the 1994 accord, known as the Agreed Framework, negotiated by the Clinton administration to try to stop North Korea from developing nuclear weapons.
Under the accord, the United States and its allies agreed to provide fuel to North Korea and help it build two light-water nuclear reactors. North Korea agreed to shut down its existing nuclear reactor and abandon all plans to build atomic bombs.
After taking office in 2001, the Bush administration expressed skepticism about the agreement, which collapsed after North Korea acknowledged that it had been pursuing a nuclear arms program in violation of the 1994 accord. North Korea has since fired up its five-megawatt nuclear plant, pulled out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and expelled inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Administration officials also said this week that North Korea boasted that it had begun reprocessing 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods to make plutonium. If that is true, the country could begin building a small arsenal of nuclear weapons within months.
Some administration officials have rejected the possibility of reviving the 1994 agreement as the basis for future negotiations, saying that it amounted to blackmail.
North Korea, administration officials say, must unilaterally and verifiably give up its nuclear program before the United States will discuss economic or diplomatic incentives.
The Chinese, however, say that the earlier agreement should remain the basis for new negotiations.
"The 1994 Agreed Framework played a role for a certain period of time, for 10 years," Mr. Kong said. "We hope that the agreement can be continued, but it will be up to the parties concerned."
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