Talks, sanction on agenda for US envoys in Seoul

Seoul, Nov 7: Senior US and South Korean officials met today to work on strategies ahead of six-country talks on North Korea's nuclear programmes as well as to discuss how to implement UN sanctions.

The talks, stalled since late last year, are expected to resume in a couple of weeks after North Korea said it would return to the dialogue on the premise it would discuss a financial crackdown on North Korean firms.

The US envoys are pressing South Korea to implement a UN Security Council resolution on North Korea banning trade that aids the North's weapons programmes after Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test last month.

''We look forward to the resumption of the six-party talks. We look forward to the strict implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1718,'' US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told reporters after meeting with South Korean officials.

The two countries said they did not recognise the North as a nuclear state, as Pyongyang asserted in an apparent attempt to turn the six-nation dialogue into arms talks.

''We don't have any specific target date, but it will be held sometime late November or early December,'' South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said of the talks.

Robert Joseph, undersecretary of state for arms control, was also in Seoul to discuss the UN resolution.

Burns has been on a low-key trip to Asia, which also included Tokyo and continues to Beijing ahead the six-way talks, the first since November last year.

The visit by two of the State Department's top officials is the latest in a series of US officials who tried to ensure that Seoul stayed the course on international efforts to sanction the North for defying warnings with missile and nuclear tests.

South Korea is wary of breaking off hard-won ties with the North that it sees as having cut tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Pyongyang has warned the South of unspecified retaliation if Seoul joined US-led sanctions.

North Korea pulled out of the six-way talks in anger over the US financial sanctions. Washington targeted North Korean firms it suspects supported the North's illicit activities, including counterfeiting and money laundering.

The visits by Burns and Joseph come after South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said yesterday that Seoul would continue commercial projects in the North. The projects had raised suspicions they were channeling cash to the North's leadership.

REUTERS

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