South Korea made a fresh call Tuesday for the U.N. Security Council to debate North Korea's uranium enrichment program, which according to experts could produce more nuclear weapons.
South Korea
made
a fresh call Tuesday for the U.N. Security Council to debate
North
Korea
's uranium enrichment program,
which according to experts could produce more nuclear weapons.
The issue of U.N. referral "will be discussed intensively" when U.S.
Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg visits
Seoul
on
Wednesday, Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said.
He said the issue would also be raised when
Alexei
Borodavkin
,
Russia
's
chief negotiator to stalled six-party talks on the North's nuclear disarmament,
visits on Friday.
Talks would focus on efforts to create a favorable atmosphere for the
resumption of the six-party process, Kim said at a news conference.
"We will continue diplomatic efforts to make
North
Korea
realize the international
community's stern position that it will not tolerate its nuclear
development," he said.
The North last November showed off an apparently functioning uranium enrichment
plant to visiting
U.S.
scientists. It says this is part of a peaceful energy program.
Experts say it could easily be reconfigured to produce weapons-grade uranium,
giving the North a second way to make a bomb in addition to an acknowledged
plutonium operation.
The U.N. Security Council ordered the North to scrap all its nuclear programs
when it imposed fresh sanctions after the country's second atomic test in May
2009.
Steinberg is visiting
South Korea
and
Japan
to
brief them on last week's
Washington
summit between U.S. President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Hu
Jintao. He will go on to
China
.
China
, the
North's sole major ally, for the first time publicly expressed concern at the
claimed uranium enrichment program in a summit joint statement.
Obama and Hu also called for "necessary steps" to restart the
six-nation talks, which the North abandoned just before its second nuclear
test.
It has expressed conditional willingness to return, as
China
wants.
However, the
U.S.
,
South
Korea
and
Japan
say
Pyongyang
must
mend ties with
Seoul
,
which were strained by a deadly artillery attack last November on a South
Korean island.
They say the North must also show it is serious about the nuclear forum, which
has been meeting on and off since August 2003.
South and
North Korea
have
agreed to hold high-level military talks at a date to be set. However,
Seoul
demands that
Pyongyang
accept responsibility for past armed provocations and promise no repetition.
North Korea
,
striking a softer tone after months of tough rhetoric, said Tuesday it wants
reconciliation.
"There is no reason whatsoever for
South
Korea
not to accept the (North's)
sincere proposal for dialogue if it acts with reason in the common interests of
the nation," ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said.
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