North Korea nuclear envoy seeks talks ‘without preconditions’
The main plutonium reactor at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear facility may be back up and running
North Korea’s chief nuclear envoy appealed for long-stalled talks on its atomic programme to resume “without preconditions” on Thursday, Korean media said, days after reports it may have restarted a reactor.
The comments in Beijing by Pyongyang’s First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan were the North’s following suggestions - based on satellite imagery - that the main plutonium reactor at its ageing Yongbyon nuclear facility may be back up and running.
The development last week was met with grave concern and Russian warnings of a Chernobyl-like disaster given the reactor’s “nightmarish state”.
The US added that restarting the facility, which was built with Soviet help and mothballed in 2007 would be “a misstep” and a “very serious matter”.
The United States and South Korea have long demanded that Pyongyang show commitment to ending its nuclear weapons programme before the six-party talks, which have been stalled for several years, can resume.
But according to the Yonhap News Agency, Kim told the meeting in Beijing: “Attaching preconditions to our offer of dialogue would cause mistrust.”
China is the North’s sole major ally and economic lifeline, and Kim told the forum, marking the 10th anniversary of the negotiations’ launch: “We are ready to enter the six-party talks without preconditions.”