LEAD: High-level S. Korean delegation arrives in Pyongyang

0 Comments | Asian Political News, Oct 21, 2002

SEOUL, Oct. 19 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH KELLY'S REMARKS IN SEOUL)

A high-level South Korean delegation arrived in Pyongyang on Saturday for the eighth round of inter-Korean ministerial talks, the first face-to-face encounter since North Korea's admission earlier this month that it has been pursuing a secret nuclear weapons program.

Yonhap News Agency said the 48-member delegation led by Unification Minister Jeong Se Hyun landed at Pyongyang's Sunan airport after flying on a direct inter-Korean air route off the western coast.

Before his departure, Jeong was quoted as saying, ''We hope to tell the North clearly what we think about its nuclear situation and other matters.''

At the talks, which are slated to last for three days starting Sunday, the South is also expected to raise the issue of its citizens abducted in the past by Pyongyang and to ask the North to hold previously agreed upon defense ministers' talks as early as possible.

Washington revealed Wednesday that Pyongyang acknowledged it has a secret program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons when U.S. special envoy James Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, visited Pyongyang on Oct. 3-5.

Pyongyang also asserted then that it is no longer bound by the 1994 Agreed Framework signed between the two countries, under which the North was to freeze and dismantle its graphite-moderated nuclear reactors in exchange for two light-water reactors, said to be more difficult to use in development of nuclear weapons.

Earlier Saturday, Kelly, told a press conference in Seoul that the U.S. would lead a drive with allies like South Korea and Japan to exert ''maximum international pressure'' on the North to abandon its nuclear weapons development program.

''We are watching very closely to see if North Korea takes the actions we and the international community are demanding to immediately and visibly end this nuclear weapons program and abide by international commitments,'' he said.

He said the U.S. government would not enter into negotiations with the North to settle the nuclear issue until it ends its covert nuclear weapons program, but would keep open channels of communication established with North Korea's diplomatic mission to the United Nations in New York.

Earlier Saturday, Kelly met with two top national security advisors to President Kim Dae Jung -- Lim Dong Won and Yim Sung Joon -- and also Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Choi Sung Hong.

At the talks, Kelly and the South Korean leaders agreed that the North's nuclear weapons program cannot be condoned and also that the issue should be resolved by peaceful means.

On Sunday, Kelly is scheduled to fly into Tokyo for consultations with Japanese leaders.

U.S. government sources said Friday that Washington is considering suspending the supply of fuel oil to North Korea under the 1994 accord, and would make a decision after holding talks with Japan and South Korea.

Under the accord, a U.S.-led international consortium known as the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization has been supplying 500,000 tons of fuel oil annually to North Korea as an alternative energy source until construction of the light-water reactors is completed.