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| North Korea proposes high-level security talks with US | | | Agencies
Pyongyang : Days after having called off the talks proposed with its neighbour South Korea, North Korea has now decided to offer a talks' proposal to the US, reports said Sunday. North Korea's National Defence Commission has offered "serious discussions" to "secure peace and stability in the region and ease tension on the Korean peninsula", the BBC quoted a statement carried by KCNA news agency.
North Korea has allowed the US to choose the time and place for the security talks, but Pyongyang doesn't want any preconditions set by America, the BBC report added. The unusal talks' offer by the North comes just days after on Thursday it cancelled talks with Seoul accusing it of 'arrogance'.
The proposal for talks between the Korean War foes follows months of acrimony over North Korea's defiant launch of a long-range rocket in December and a nuclear test in February, provocative acts that drew tightened U.N. and U.S. sanctions. The U.S. and South Korea countered the moves by stepping up annual springtime military exercises that prompted North Korea to warn of a "nuclear war" on the Korean Peninsula. However, as tensions subsided in May and June, Pyongyang has made tentative overtures to re-establish dialogue with South Korea and Washington. A proposal for Cabinet-level talks with South Korea — the first in six years — led to initial plans for two days of meetings in Seoul earlier this week, but the plans fell apart over disagreement over who would lead the two delegations.
North Korea fought against U.S.-led United Nations and South Korean troops during the three-year Korean War in the early 1950s, and Pyongyang does not have diplomatic relations with either government. The Korean Peninsula remains divided by a heavily fortified border. Reunifying the Korean Peninsula was a major goal of North Korea's two late leaders, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, and is a legacy inherited by current leader Kim Jong Un. North Korea is expected to draw attention to Korea's division in the weeks leading up to the 60th anniversary in July marking the close of the Korean conflict, which ended in an armistice. A peace treaty has never been signed formally ending the war. Foreign analysts say impoverished North Korea often expresses interest in talks after raising tensions with provocative behavior in order to win outside concessions.
Washington's top worry is North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang is estimated to have a handful of crude nuclear devices and has been working toward building a bomb it can mount on a missile capable of striking the United States. Earlier this year, Kim Jong Un enshrined the drive to build a nuclear arsenal, as well as building the economy, as national goals. North Korea claims the need to build atomic weapons to defend itself against what it sees as a U.S. nuclear threat in Korea and the region. |
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