North should return to talks
(From The Japan Times Oct. 10 issue)

要約
北朝鮮の6ヵ国協議復帰は不可欠

In a meeting Oct. 5 with visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Pyongyang, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il expressed his country's "readiness" to hold multilateral talks, including the six-party talks on ending the North's nuclear ambitions, "depending on the outcome" of bilateral talks with the United States. He also said that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was the dying instruction of his late father and founder of North Korea, Kim Il Sung.

Mr. Kim's latest statement goes further than the one he made in September when Mr. Wen's special envoy Dai Bingguo visited Pyongyang. At that time, Mr. Kim expressed his willingness to resolve the problems related to the peninsula's denuclearization through bilateral and multilateral talks, without mentioning the six-party talks. There was no guarantee that North Korea would immediately return to the six-party talks, but Mr. Kim's remarks indicate a greater possibility of that occurring.

This is the first time that Mr. Kim has mentioned the possibility of the North's return to the six-party talks since its withdrawal from them in April, after the United Nations Security Council condemned its test of a long-range rocket earlier the same month. In May, the North carried out its second nuclear test.

Mr. Kim also said that the "hostile relations" between his country and the United States should be converted into "peaceful ties" through bilateral talks "without fail." The United States is likely to hold bilateral talks with the North under the framework of the six-party talks.

North Korea's agenda may include requests for a peace treaty to replace the armistice for the Korean War and for a concrete road map for normalization of ties with the United States to be drawn up. But it should realize that unless it makes clear commitment to "complete and verifiable" denuclearization through "irreversible steps," it will be impossible to establish peaceful ties with the United States.

Japan, on its part, should make serious efforts to restart talks with North Korea to solve the issues surrounding the kidnapping of Japanese citizens by North Korean agents.

中国の温家宝首相との会談で北朝鮮の金正日総書記は、朝米会議の結果を踏まえた上で6ヵ国協議を含む多国間協議に応じる用意があると表明し、朝鮮半島の非核化は故・金日成主席の遺訓だと語った。

北朝鮮は4月に長距離ロケット発射を安保理に非難され、6ヵ国協議から脱退、金総書記が6ヵ国協議復帰を示唆したのはそれ以来だ。

総書記は朝米協議を通じて両国は敵対関係から平和的関係に必ず転換されるべきと述べた。

北朝鮮の狙いは、朝鮮戦争休戦状態から恒久的な平和体制への転換と米国との国交正常化かもしれないが、そのためには核兵器の完全で検証可能な不可逆的廃棄が必要だと認識すべきだ。一方で、日本政府は拉致問題についての対話再開に向けて本格的に取り組まねばならない。