The United States has agreed to resolve the issue of financial
sanctions against North Korea within 30 days, said Christopher
Hill, chief US negotiator to the six-party talks, on Tuesday
evening.
"We told the other parties in the talks that we will resolve the
matter of the sanctions regarding the BDA (Banco Delta Asia) within
30 days," Hill told reporters when he returned to his hotel from
the six-party talks which ended Tuesday with a joint document.
"We have some ideas about how to proceed with that," he
added.
The financial sanctions are one of the key factors that have
stalled the six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing the Korean
Peninsula.
Hill said he would leave Beijing tomorrow morning and would
invite the head of the North Korea delegation to the six-party
talks Kim Kye-Gwan to New York for bilateral meeting on
normalization of relations.
Hill said he was pleased with the newly reached joint document,
saying the document was "a very solid step forward" and "the first
step on the implementation of the September statement because we
are moving out the pages of the September statement onto the
ground."
But he also said the parties obviously had a long way to go,
adding that the agreement on initial actions was not the end of the
whole denuclearization process, but the end of the beginning of the
process.
Hill said the first undertaking was to shut down and seal the
Yongbyon reactor, close the nuclear complex and allow the return of
the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) inspectors.
When asked to comment on the differences of the 1994 agreed
framework and the current inked joint document, Hill said the two
deals were in different eras.
On the working groups to be established, Hill said two of the
working groups were of great interest to the United States, namely
the groups on normalization of US-North Korea relations and North
Korea-Japan relations.
He said the United States and North Korea had not designated the
heads for their bilateral working groups, and the working group
will determine to what level and when to meet.
The working group on energy cooperation might be at more
technical level instead of deputy or ministerial level, and the
group would work on modalities of the shipments of fuel oil to
North Korea at the initial phase and the following phases.
On the 60-day period for initial actions, Hill said, "that's
going to be a very fast pace", adding that "as the initial actions
proceed, we can build up momentum."
Hill noted that the parties would not rest until they complete
the job.
According to Hill, four countries, including Russia, China, the
United States and South Korea agreed to provide economic, energy
and humanitarian assistance to North Korea, and he also expressed
his hope for the participation by Japan and other members of the
international community.
Hill spoke highly of the six-party talks mechanism, saying it
created a mechanism to address comprehensively the issues in
Northeast Asia.
"How far they (North Korea) are willing to move in what pace,
time will tell." Hill added.
(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2007)
