Hopes rise for nuclear talks breakthrough

The US and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) envoys were set for a second day of unprecedented talks in Berlin yesterday, raising prospects for a breakthrough in their stand-off over Pyongyang's nuclear arms program.

Officials said Washington's willingness to talk directly with Pyongyang as the DPRK has long demanded suggested it may now be ready to compromise over a crackdown on the state's finances, despite its defiant nuclear test last October.

Several officials in Washington said they believed the Bush administration was inclined to find a solution to the dispute over DPRK's accounts at a Macao bank, which it has called "a willing pawn" in Pyongyang's illicit financial deals.

Tuesday's bilateral talks between US envoy Christopher Hill and DPRK's Kim Kye-gwan in Berlin were the first outside the framework of six-country nuclear negotiations in Beijing since their beginning in 2003.

The Republic of Korea (ROK) Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said the meeting should bring the two sides a step closer to implementing a key agreement on ending the DPRK's nuclear arms program which was struck in September 2005.

"The work now being done is to bring tangible results when the six-way talks take place next time", Song said.

"There will have to be a good platform laid at this meeting for reaching an agreement on early steps on implementing the September 19 joint statement."

In that statement, hammered out in talks with ROK, the United States, Japan, Russia and China, Pyongyang agreed to trade its nuclear arms for economic aid and security guarantees.

The talks later bogged down over Pyongyang's complaint that a US squeeze on its financial activities was proof that Washington remained hostile to its leaders.

The United States has since agreed to meet DPRK officials separately on the financial crackdown and is looking at the possibility of releasing some of the DPRK's funds it froze, US officials said.

The separate meeting of US and DPRK financial officials are set to resume next week in New York.

"They are taking another look at this issue", said one US official. "There is active discussion within the administration on whether to make concessions and if so, how far, how fast and under what conditions."

US authorities are scrutinizing a number of DPRK's accounts at the Macao bank to see if funds from the North's legitimate business can be separated from illicit cash flow, one of the officials said on the condition of anonymity.

source: China Daily/Agencies