Shuttle diplomacy behind the Six-Party Talks

According to the agreement reached after the fourth round of the six-party talks on August 7, 2005, the talks will resume from August 29. Although a common consensus have not been reached regarding to the joint document at the fourth round, various parties have expressed their sincerity in solving the disputes. Particularly, delegations at the negotiation table have conducted lots of bilateral contacts, which was conducive for the delegations to further understand each other's stands and differences. Guided by such a consideration, delegations have kicked off the shuttle diplomacy just before a new round of talks is convened.

Last week, the US side offered DPRK the "New York Channel" contact on its own initiative, and showed its readiness to answer any questions from DPRK regarding to the standpoint on the talks, in light of which the DPRK side put forward its second contact with the US. On August 22, the two delegations held their third meeting and one day later the fourth. Joseph DeTrani, a US State Department special envoy for Korean affairs, and Han Song-Ryol, DPRK's permanent representative to the UN, have exchanged views on the resumption of the six-party talks and other issues that concerned both parties. However, both parties have declined to disclose the details of their talks. US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack described that "business is business" is the altitude of DPRK and made it clear that US side hopes the resumption of the fourth round of talks. Meanwhile, Christopher Hill, the chief US negotiator, said the US is willing to continue negotiation with DPRK.

Apart from DPRK and the US, China, the ROK, Japan and others also conducted a series of bilateral contacts, creating an active atmosphere for the resumption of talks. After the communication with Chinese delegation in Beijing in the mid of August, Ban Ki-Moon, ROK's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, arrived in the US on August 21, and held consultations with US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Christopher Hill. ROK also planed to dispatch officials to Japan and Russia to coordinate position there.

Meanwhile, Cui Tiankai, director of the Asian Department of Chinese Foreign Ministry, left for the US on August 21, and had extensive meetings with such officials as Hill and Joseph DeTrani. Afterwards, Cui also went to the ROK and met with South Korea's chief negotiator Song Min-song.

Wu Dawei, Chinese vice foreign minister and chief delegate, exchanged views with his Japanese counterpart Sasae Kenichiro on August 24 in Tokyo. Later, Wu left for DPRK.

With an objective of coordinating stance with the US, Sasae Kenichiro visited Washington on August 25 and held talks with Hill.

Although delegations refused to disclose much on their talks, the current round of shuttle diplomacy mainly targets at the major differences in the fourth round, seeking resolutions and trying to reach an agreement on the joint agreement. These problems include:

I. The biggest dispute on the joint document is the scope within which nuclear activities should be abandoned. According to Yonhap News Agency, Ban Ki-Moon has talked with Rice in her office for 130 minutes.

II. The issue of peaceful utilization of nuclear energy. Actually, the peaceful utilization of nuclear energy and the scope within which nuclear activities should be abandoned is two aspects of one issue.

III. The issue of uranium enrichment.

IV. The issue of peace agreement. South Korean newspapers such as Chosunilbo and Dong-a Ilbo held if the process of peace agreement could be initiated, issues such as the normalization of DPRK-US relations, the security guarantee energy aid for DPRK can be readily solved.

The Reuters reports that ROK officials are optimistic about the possible results to be achieved through the resumption of the talks, holding US provides DPRK with the best conditions in the past 50 years, according to the current shuttle diplomacy. However, trust needs time to build up in view of years of US-DPRK confrontation. Therefore, the issues could not be solved through a single round of talks.

By People's Daily Online