South Korea and the United States agreed Wednesday that North Korea should demonstrate its denuclearization commitment and improve relations with Seoul if international nuclear talks are to reopen, a senior official said Wednesday.
Stephen Bosworth, Washington's special envoy on North Korea, and Seoul's chief nuclear negotiator Wi Sung-lac also agreed that the international community should censure the North for its newly acknowledged uranium enrichment program, the official said.
"The South and the U.S. shared an understanding that future six-party talks should not be talks for talks' sake and, more than anything else, that the North should show sincerity about denuclearization," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
"Both sides shared the consensus that North Korea's uranium enrichment activity is a violation of" a series of U.N. resolutions and other agreements that deserves a "stern response from the international community," he said, adding that the new nuclear program is a cause for serious concern in Washington.
Improvement in inter-Korean relations is also a prerequisite for six-party talks, he said.
These stances, which are not new, were reinforced as the U.S. prepares for a summit with China, which has strongly called for dialogue to reduce tensions, and as Pyongyang has shown a growing willingness to talk.
Bosworth's discussions in Seoul reaffirmed the belief of Seoul and Washington that the onus is on North Korea to defuse tensions that the regime has created with a deadly shelling of a South Korean island and revelations of the uranium program.
They also appear to suggest that six-party talks are unlikely to happen anytime soon.
The U.S. envoy's trip to the region, which will also take him to China and Japan, came ahead of a summit between U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao set for Jan. 19 in Washington where North Korea is expected to be a key topic.
China has called for restarting the six-party nuclear talks to curb tensions that were heightened after North Korea's deadly shelling of South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island in November and the revelations that it has a uranium enrichment facility for a suspected new atomic weapons program.
North Korea has also been signaling a growing willingness to resume negotiations.
In its New Year's message issued Saturday, Pyongyang stressed the importance of improved relations and dialogue with South Korea and said that it wants to achieve peace in the region and make the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons.
South Korea and the U.S. have urged Pyongyang to first demonstrate through action its commitment to give up nuclear programs and improve relations with Seoul if it wants to reopen the nuclear talks, a stance that reflects deep skepticism about a regime that has abused negotiations to only get concessions.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley reiterated the demand.
"We do want to see specific things from North Korea, including a reduction of tension between North and South, an end to provocations and a seriousness of purpose with respect to" a 2005 disarmament-for-aid deal, he said. "We have to be assured that dialogue would be constructive. We don't just want to have talks for talks' sake."
Seoul's Foreign Minister Kim also said the ball is in North Korea's court.
"It is up to North Korea's attitude whether it will choose a dead-end path to confrontation and enmity or a path to peace and prosperity," Kim said in a speech at the Korean Council on Foreign Relations. "Six-party talks are a useful tool, but in order to achieve substantial progress through this, the right atmosphere should be created, including inter-Korean dialogue."
Should the nuclear talks resume, Seoul will seek a comprehensive deal with Pyongyang, he said.
The six-party talks have been deadlocked since the last session in December 2008 due to a North Korean boycott. The talks bring together the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the U.S.