US, DPRK to Hold Bilateral Contact During Six-party Nuclear Talks: S.Korean FM

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, August 20, 2003

US, DPRK to Hold Bilateral Contact During Six-party Nuclear Talks: S.Korean FM

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South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan reconfirmed Wednesday there will be bilateral dialogue between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on the sidelines of the six-nation conference in Beijing on the DPRK's nuclear issue.

"No matter what form it takes, there will be a bilateral DPRK-US contact at the six-way talks," Yoon said in his first weekly briefing for local and foreign media.

Pyongyang has demanded face-to-face dialogue with the United States to discuss their nuclear issue. However, Washington has insisted it would not discuss the nuclear issue with Pyongyang in bilateral talks because the problem is a regional issue that should be addressed in a multilateral manner.

The six-party talks are scheduled for Aug. 27-29 in Beijing. The United States, the DPRK, China, South Korea, Russia and Japan will take part in the talks.

Yoon said the first round of talks in Beijing, which was participated by the DPRK, the United States and China in April, was just the beginning of a long process to resolve the nuclear issue.

"Given characteristics of the nuclear problem, it is difficult to expect it to be resolved in a round of talks or two," he said. "Rather than being overly optimistic or pessimistic about the first round of the multilateral talks, it would be a more right view to say that a long settlement process has now begun."

"It would not be appropriate to expect something too big (from the talks). One of our primary goals is to strengthen dialogue momentum and belief among involving countries of the talks that this meeting is useful and must continue," he said.

Yoon also said the Seoul government believes that the DPRK's concern about its security needs to be addressed, but he refused to talk about how.

Pyongyang wants a non-aggression treaty with the United States.However, Washington has rejected such demand.

The foreign minister also revealed that the South Korean delegation to the talks will be led by Deputy Foreign Minister LeeSoo-hyuck.

The DPRK nuclear issue surfaced late last year when Washington claimed that Pyongyang had a secret nuclear weapon program.

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