South Korean President Park Geun-Hye on Friday offered a “creative” solution to stalled six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme — cut Pyongyang from the equation and make them five-party ne
South Korean President Park Geun-Hye on Friday offered a “creative” solution to stalled six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme — cut Pyongyang from the equation and make them five-party negotiations instead. “We should find various and creative approaches, including attempting to hold five-way talks excluding North Korea,” Ms Park said during a policy briefing with top ministers.
The six-party talks, involving the two Koreas, the US, Japan, Russ-ia and China, began in 2003 as an effort to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear programme in exchange for aid.
The North quit the dialogue process in 2009, ostensibly to pro-test sanctions imposed after a long-range rocket test. The following month it conducted its second nuclear test.
North Korea’s main ally, China, has repeatedly pushed for the talks’ resumption, but Ms Park said the North’s fourth nuclear test on January 6 underlined Pyongyang’s rejection of denuclearisation as a bargaining chip.
South Korean foreign minister Yun Byung-Se said excluding North Korea from the dialogue process would serve as a powerful signal of the international community’s anger and frustration.
Meanwhile, a UN investigator said on Friday that the world must back a criminal prosecution of North Korea’s leaders as there has been no improvement in human rights there in the two years since a UN report detailed Nazi-style atrocities.
