By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter


President Roh Moo-hyun Wednesday expressed cautious optimism with regard to the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, saying the latest negotiations in Beijing, though no clear agreement was reached, obtained a certain degree of success.

``A joint statement couldn’t be signed due to differences in peaceful nuclear activities, but I believe we’ve made a small achievement,’’ he said at a meeting over lunch with delegates to the six-nation talks.

``It would be hard to affix a seal at once,’’ he said. ``But I’ve heard the atmosphere of the six-party talks has changed a lot.’’

Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon, Seoul’s point man on the nuclear issue, nodded in a show of consent, explaining the details of the talks, a Chong Wa Dae spokesman said.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon is to visit China on Aug. 11-13 and Washington next week to discuss follow-up measures on the North Korean nuclear disarmament talks, aides said.

Despite the cheerful ambiance in Seoul, however, North Korea and the United States traded accusations, putting the blame on the other for the inconclusive talks during the past two weeks.

Three days after the talks, which began a three-week recess Sunday, North Korea argued that it is the U.S. alone that is holding up the nuclear talks, saying Washington must drop its insistence that the North abandon plans for civilian nuclear power plants.

Kim Kye-gwan, the North’s chief negotiator, made no mention of the other four nations in the negotiations and suggested no further flexibility on his part. North Korea’s ``stand on the nuclear issue is very clear,’’ China’s official Xinhua News Agency quoted him as saying Tuesday in the North Korean capital. ``Now it’s up to the U.S. to change its policy.’’

In the U.S., however, President George W. Bush reiterated his stance against the North’s nuclear activities, even for peaceful purposes. In a press conference at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, he cited the difference between the North Korean and the Iranian nuclear issues.

``North Korea is in a different situation,’’ he told reporters after a meeting with his economic advisors. ``The North Koreans didn’t tell the truth when it came to their enrichment programs.’’

In addition to its deceptive past, he also cited another point of difference with Pyongyang, saying it has been offering energy assistance from Seoul. As part of its effort to convince the North to give up its nuclear program, South Korea has offered to directly supply 2 million kilowatts of electricity to the North beginning in 2008.

``The South Koreans have said, `We will build and share power with you,’’’ Bush said, adding the proposal ``seems to make good sense’’ as long as the North gives up their nuclear weapons and ensure full transparency.

Christopher R. Hill, the top U.S. negotiator in the six-party nuclear talks, also insisted that the American position had not changed. The U.S., he said, cannot accept the idea that North Korea could have a peaceful nuclear program.

He said the North took a research reactor allowed under an agreement with the Clinton administration in 1994, and then ejected international inspectors and ``proudly proclaimed it was making bombs’’ from the research reactor. ``So there’s a bit of a problem here.’’

Still, he tried to play down the existing disagreement, saying, ``I would not assume that every difference that emerged at the very end of the talks represents a serious difference or a deal-breaker type difference.’’

Hill said the U.S. could continue contact with North Korea during the three-week recess.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr