North Korea Watch: United States – A Return to 6-Party Talks is Insufficient

A protester shouts slogans denouncing North Korea’s nuclear device test in front of Russian embassy in Seoul October 16, 2006.

Reuters: U.S. looks to China, Japan to act on N.Korea sanctions

The United States said on Monday it expected China to implement U.N. sanctions against
North Korea despite misgivings, and warned Pyongyang that merely returning to nuclear talks would not be enough to halt the punitive steps.

Japan said its Foreign Minister Taro Aso would meet U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon in Seoul on Thursday for a display of unity on North Korea, after Rice visits Tokyo earlier in the week.

“A return to six-party talks kind of doesn’t do it,” U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer told a small group of journalists. “You have to come to the six-party talks and agree on how you are going to implement the September 19 agreement.”

“If that implementation could then be verified by the international community, I think you would see walking back from the sanctions regime.”

North Korea agreed in principle at six-party talks in September 2005 to scrap its nuclear arms programs in return for aid, security assurances and promises of better diplomatic ties.

A very simple equation for Kim Jong-Il:

No nuclear weapons = No Regime change + No Sanctions + Foreign Aid and Investment

Stay tuned…..