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BEIJING, July 17: China on Thursday said the North Korean nuclear standoff was at a “critical moment” and urged Pyongyang and Washington to revert to the 1994 Agreed Framework as a way out of the festering crisis.
“We believe the situation on the Korean peninsula is at a critical moment, we hope the international community and parties concerned can exercise restraint and calm and stick to the peaceful direction of seeking settlement through dialogue,” foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan said.
“We hope that the agreement can be continued, but it will be up to the discussions of the parties concerned for it to be resolved properly.”
“China hopes to see the quick resumption of the peace talks with the purpose of the Beijing talks being to seek a final settlement to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Kong said.
SHOOTOUT: Kong was speaking after an exchange of fire between North and South Korean armies along the heavily armed demilitarized zone as tensions simmer following Pyongyang’s announcement last November of its nuclear ambitions.
The shootout between North and South Korean guard posts in the buffer zone lasted for nearly one minute. North Korean machine gun rounds hit the wall of the South Korean guard post, Colonel Lee Hong-Gi of the South’s joint chiefs of staff (JCS) said.
South Korean troops suffered no casualties but it was not known whether any of the North Koreans were hurt, Lee told a media briefing.
North Korean troops fired four rounds from a machine gun at 6:10 am (2110 GMT Wednesday) while South Korean soldiers hit back with 17 rounds from an M-60 machine gun, Lee said.
Under the Agreed Framework deal, the United States with its allies agreed to supply North Korea with 500,000 tons of fuel oil annually and two light water nuclear reactors if Pyongyang shut down its heavy water nuclear reactor and scrapped efforts to build a nuclear bomb.
Although the two light water reactors were scheduled to be built this year, construction on the plant has not started, prompting North Korea to announce to the US last November that it was restarting its nuclear weapons programme.
Since then it has fired up its heavy water nuclear plant, which can produce weapons grade plutonium, pulled out of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and kicked International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors out of the country.
Pyongyang also announced that a group of 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods, sealed by the IAEA in 1994, have been opened and have undergone reprocessing, ostensibly to produce plutonium.
The nuclear programme is to ward off any attempt by the Bush administration to seek regime change in North Korea as was done in Iraq, Pyongyang has said.
“Our overall position is that besides peacefully resolving the North Korean nuclear issue..., we must address the rationale security concerns of the DPRK, under the current circumstances,” Kong said.
WASHINGTON: Meanwhile in Washington, a senior US official said North Korea appears willing to take part in new three-way nuclear crisis talks with China and the United States in Beijing, which could be expanded to include Japan and South Korea.
As Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo travelled to Washington to brief policymakers on his recent visit to Pyongyang, details began to emerge of the format for a new dialogue on the drama.
“From what we know so far, and what we have been talking to the Chinese about, North Korea is willing to resume another round of Beijing talks that could be expanded,” the senior official said on condition of anonymity.
The United States has always insisted on a multilateral format for the talks, keen to include its Japanese and South Korean allies in the process.
North Korea has consistently demanded one-on-one talks with Washington, which officials here have declined, anxious not to “reward” the Stalinist state for, as they see it, precipitating the crisis.
It is not yet clear if the United States will grant Pyongyang a one-on-one meeting, within the multilateral format, as an inducement for the Stalinist state to take part in the talks.
China joined the United States and North Korea for trilateral talks in Beijing in April.—AFP
