The U.S. special envoy on North Korea policy said Saturday that diplomacy aimed at restarting the six-party talks on ending the North's nuclear weapons program was unlikely to produce a breakthrough anytime soon, saying there is still a "long way" to go before a resumption of the talks.
Glyn Davies made the remarks upon arrival in Seoul to meet with South Korea's chief negotiator to the talks, Lim Sung-nam, after holding two days of talks with North Korean diplomats in Beijing and reporting "a little bit of progress," but no breakthrough.
Asked about the prospect of the resumption of the six-party talks, Davies replied, "We are so long away from anything like that."
Davies said he will meet Lim and Kim Tae-hyo, South Korea's deputy national security adviser, and "consult with our colleague in the ROK (South Korea) government and discuss the result of the meeting in Beijing with the DPRK (North Korea) delegate and talk about the way forward."
He did not give any details of what progress had been made in the talks with North Korea's long-serving nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan.
The Beijing talks, the first since the December death of the North's longtime leader Kim Jong-il, were widely seen as a chance to gauge whether Pyongyang's new regime under young leader Kim Jong-un is open to negotiations to give up its nuclear ambition.
The six-party talks, which involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, were last held in Beijing in late 2008.
Shortly before Kim's death, North Korea and the U.S. appeared to be ready to announce a breakthrough that could have led to a resumption of the six-nation talks.
North Korea and the U.S. had been poised to reach a deal in which Pyongyang would halt its uranium enrichment program in return for a resumption of Washington's food assistance.
Last year, diplomatic efforts to get North Korea back to the negotiating table gained some momentum, but the unexpected demise of Kim put a brake on those efforts.
North Korea has not shown any signs of giving up its nuclear programs. The North recently praised its late leader for elevating the country to a nuclear state. North Korea conducted two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, drawing international condemnation and tightened U.N. sanctions.
South Korea and the U.S. have insisted the North accept a monitored shutdown of its uranium enrichment program to show sincerity toward denuclearization before reviving the disarmament-for-aid talks.
In 2010, North Korea revealed it was running a uranium enrichment facility. Highly enriched uranium can be used to make weapons, providing Pyongyang with a second way to build nuclear bombs in addition to its existing plutonium program.
(Yonhap News)
