Stop the posturing!

Envoy: N. Korea may return to nuke treaty

By HENRY MEYER, Associated Press Writer
Last Updated 8:27 am PDT Wednesday, August 17, 2005

MOSCOW (AP) - A Russian envoy who recently met with Kim Jong Il said Wednesday the North Korean leader told him Pyongyang could return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty if the United States stops its perceived threats, the Interfax news agency reported.
Konstantin Pulikovsky, presidential envoy to the Russian Far East, said he met with Kim several times this week during a visit marking the 60th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule.

The reclusive Kim said he was positive about the six-nation talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program, Pulikovsky said.

Those talks - which include the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia - broke off Aug. 7 in Beijing after 13 days. The North insists it should still have the right to "peaceful" nuclear activities if it gives up its weapons, but Washington wants the communist nation to be nuclear-free.

The talks are set to reconvene in Beijing the week of Aug. 29.

Pyongyang withdrew from the international Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty after U.S. officials said in 2002 that the North admitted violating a 1994 deal by embarking on a secret uranium enrichment program.

"He said that he doesn't need a single nuclear warhead if the United States drops its threats toward his country," Interfax quoted Pulikovsky as saying in a telephone interview.
Kim "does not rule out North Korea's return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in the absence of threats from the United States," Pulikovsky said, according to the agency.

The North has accused the United States of having "hostile policies" toward it and having its own nuclear weapons on the peninsula. The United States rejects those accusations.
Meanwhile, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday he will discuss the North's "peaceful" nuclear activity with U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, during an upcoming visit to Washington.

But he stressed that the United States and his country agree on the issue.

North Korea's "door to peaceful uses (of nuclear energy) will open in the future" when it dismantles all nuclear programs, rejoins the NPT and abides by the rules of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, Ban told reporters. He is slated to leave for Washington on Saturday.
Last week, South Korea Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said the North has the right to a peaceful nuclear program - a view in apparent conflict with Washington. Both U.S. and South Korean officials later tried to play down any gulf between the two allies.

Russia has worked to re-establish Soviet-era ties with the isolated Stalinist state in recent years. President Vladimir Putin has visited North Korea and hosted Kim twice.

But analysts say Russia is unlikely to be the channel for the announcement of any significant move by Pyongyang.

"I don't think this is serious," Lukyanov, editor of the Russia in Global Affairs journal, said of Kim's reported comments.

Lukyanov said North Korea could always accuse the U.S. leadership of having hostile intentions to justify maintaining a nuclear weapons program.

"Kim wants to speak only to the United States. His view is that it is the U.S. that makes all the decisions, and he is right," Lukyanov said, adding that China, a major aid donor to North Korea, is the only country that likely could play an intermediary role in the conflict.
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