The Republic of Korea (ROK), US and Japanese officials on Wednesday suggested the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s offer to freeze its nuclear program may help bring about a new round of talks ending on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.  

DPRK's offer on Tuesday to suspend its nuclear power program as well as refrain from testing or making atomic bombs was more specific than its previous statements and appeared to inject some hope for a fresh six-way talks among the United States, China, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia.

"This should be helpful in creating the atmosphere for a second round of talks," ROK's Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan told a news conference.

"I think it may show that North Korea (DPRK) may also be starting to show a will to somehow seek a breakthrough in the situation. I think it is a good thing," Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters in Tokyo.

"Even though we haven't had a six-party meeting for some time, I expect that the prospects of having one are improving," US Secretary of State Colin Powell told a news conference in Washington, saying there has been "a lot of work" among the six parties to prepare the way for a fresh round of talks.

But he also injected a cautionary note, saying the DPRK's offer to suspend its civilian and suspected military nuclear programs was not a breakthrough and that Washington wanted any fresh talks to have concrete results.

"I hope that this will improve the atmosphere for the talks," Powell said. "But we really just don't want another set of talks that are the exchange of the old positions -- we want something that will result in a step forward and that's what we're hard at work on."

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan echoed Powell's cautious optimism, noting there was "a growing momentum for the resumption" of the talks and urging "the parties to the talks to intensify their preparations."

Impatience

The six parties have not met together since their first round of talks in Beijing ended inconclusively in August.

Washington hopes to persuade Pyongyang to accept the "complete, verifiable and irreversible" dismantling of its suspected nuclear arms program through the talks.

With prospects for talks in January appearing to recede, Pyongyang on Tuesday called on Washington to accept the DPRK's offer to freeze its nuclear arms program. In addition, Pyongyang threw in for the first time what it called the "bold concession" of offering to suspend nuclear power generation.

Yoon said DPRK had mostly just added detail to several similar statements last month offering to freeze its nuclear activities in exchange for aid and diplomatic concessions from Washington and other parties to the talks.

"We regard it as positive that DPRK has reaffirmed its intention to solve the problem through dialogue and stated a little more concretely the actions it is willing to take," he said.

South Korean analysts said the timing was more important than the content of the offer, reflecting impatience with the slow pace of diplomacy Pyongyang hopes will relieve dire energy shortages that have left the country in cold and darkness.

"It indicates that North Korea (DPRK) wants a new round of six-party talks," said Paik Hak-soon of the Sejong Institute in Seoul.

"North Korea (DPRK)'s need for energy aid from the outside means that it will sign an agreement to stop developing its nuclear program at the end of six-way talks," said Yu Suk-ryul of Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security.

Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency on Wednesday said Washington "should respond to this magnanimity in good faith."

Rejecting parallels some analysts have drawn with the disarmament of Iraq and Libya, KCNA added: "The US is grossly mistaken if it thinks it can bring (DPRK) to its knees with a military threat as it did to other countries."

(China Daily January 8, 2004)