Bush Rejects N. Korea Nukes Offer
Hopes for a breakthrough in North Korea's nuclear crisis faded Wednesday after President Bush rejected Pyongyang's conditional offer to end the standoff and China, which is playing the role of mediator, reportedly found a U.S.-backed plan unacceptable and never bothered to relay it to Pyongyang.
South Korea's foreign minister said another round of six-nation talks to resolve the crisis was up in the air.
North Korea announced Tuesday it would freeze its nuclear weapons projects in return for the United States providing energy aid and removing Pyongyang from a list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
The proposal came a day after the United States, Japan and South Korea put forward their own blueprint for ending the nuclear standoff. Details were unclear, but press reports said it seeks the complete, verifiable and irrevocable dismantling of the North's nuclear program and security assurances for Pyongyang.
The North announced Tuesday night, in response to "what is now afloat and what we hear," that it was disappointed in the U.S. stand and offered its own apparent counteroffer and preconditions for six-way talks.
But South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan said Wednesday it was unlikely that North Korea had received the U.S.-backed proposal or had been making a direct response: "I believe the proposal was delivered to China on Monday, and I don't think there was enough time for China to relay it to North Korea."
Hours later, a Japanese media report said Chinese diplomats never bothered to present the proposal because they considered it unacceptable.
Citing an unnamed negotiating source, Japan's Kyodo news reported Wednesday that China told Japan, the United States and South Korea via their embassies in Beijing on Monday that their draft statement would not help reach a consensus and did not express its intention to talk about the draft with the North.
A South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman could not immediately confirm the report. A spokesman for Japan's Foreign Ministry said Tokyo had not heard "anything from China about the reported breakdown in the consensus."
"I believe China is still working hard to set up another round of six-nation talks," said Hatsuhisa Takashima.
In Washington, Mr. Bush met Tuesday with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, and the two talked extensively about North Korea. At the time, a senior U.S. official said China was feeling a sense of progress toward setting up new talks but did not believe the point has been reached yet.
A first round of talks between the United States, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas, held in Beijing in August, ended without much progress. Sides have been racing since to start more negotiations.
Yoon said earlier Wednesday that attempts to call another round before year's end were in limbo.
"It is still too early to determine whether North Korea will join a second round of talks within this year or not, just based on yesterday's statement," he said. "We are still studying North Korea's intentions."
Pyongyang has said it won't join a second round of talks until its conditions are met.
It is demanding energy aid because the country is desperately short of fuel and electricity. The United and its allies cut off 147 million gallons (556 million liters) of annual free oil shipments late last year after U.S. officials accused North Korea of running a clandestine nuclear weapons program in violation of international agreements.
This month, Washington and its allies also suspended construction of two new nuclear power plants in North Korea due to the communist state's nuclear ambitions.
The North is demanding its removal from Washington's list of terrorism-sponsoring countries because inclusion on it effectively blocks it from getting any development funds from the World Bank and other international lending organizations.
It has been on the list since 1988 because of its alleged involvement in the bombing of a South Korean airliner in the skies near Myanmar in 1987. All 115 people aboard the Korean Air flight died.