Seoul, July 13: Top nuclear negotiators for China and South Korea held discussions Monday on how to break the impasse in negotiations over North Korea’s atomic program, as South Korea’s president called for a get-tough approach on Pyongyang.
North Korea quit the six-nation nuclear negotiations in April in anger over a U.N. rebuke of its long-range rocket launch. The communist regime has since further ratcheted up tensions, conducting its second nuclear test and a series of banned missile launches.
The North is also suspected in a series of cyber attacks that caused Web outages in the U.S., and the South.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, Beijing’s nuclear envoy, has been on a trip to other members of the nuclear talks to discuss how to break the deadlock. Wu arrived in Seoul on Sunday on the last leg of his trip that included stops in Russia, the U.S. and Japan.
“The important thing is that we, both sides, should exchange opinions in a candid and in-depth manner,” the Chinese official said at the start of talks with Seoul’s nuclear envoy, Wi Sung-lac.
The U.N. Security Council adopted a tough sanctions resolution against the North last month for its nuclear test.
Washington is trying to muster international support for stringent enforcement of the sanctions that center on clamping down on North Korea’s alleged trading of banned arms and weapons-related material.
In Sweden, South Korea’s conservative, pro-U.S. President Lee Myung-bak called for pressure on Pyongyang.
“The reason we are being tough like this is to get North Korea to give up its nuclear program and come to the negotiating table,” Lee told South Korean reporters traveling with him on a trip to Europe, according to Yonhap news agency.
Sweden was the last stop on Lee’s trip that already took him to Poland and Italy.
Unlike his two liberal predecessors, Lee has taken a hard-line on Pyongyang, halting unconditional aid to Seoul’s impoverished neighbor. That has angered the North, prompting it to suspend inter-Korean reconciliation talks and key joint projects.
–Agencies