China

Revelations of DPRK nuclear site cause alarm

By Zhang Ting (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-23 08:14

Concerns are overshadowing a willingness for negotiations

BEIJING - Concerns are growing following reports that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) claims to have a new uranium enrichment facility, but Washington says it remains open to talks.

"This is obviously a disappointing announcement. It is also another in a series of provocative moves," Stephen Bosworth, the United States special envoy for the DPRK, was quoted by Reuters as saying on Monday.

"It's a very unfortunate development - but it's not a crisis," he was quoted as saying, adding that Washington is open to further dialogue.

Bosworth, who arrived in Tokyo later on Monday, is due in China on Tuesday.

The flurry of concern over the DPRK nuclear program came after The New York Times reported that Pyongyang officials showed US nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker a vast, new plant to enrich uranium with "hundreds and hundreds" of centrifuges installed.

The report has raised regional concerns.

The Republic of Korea (ROK) Defense Minister Kim Tae-young says his country may consider having US tactical nuclear weapons deployed on its soil for the first time in 19 years.

Kim raised the possibility on Monday during talks with a parliamentary committee, Reuters reported.

Japan said it could not accept the DPRK's nuclear advances, citing its own security worries as well as concerns for regional peace and stability.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry was not available for comment on Monday.

But Zhang Liangui, a professor at the Party School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in Beijing, said China saw the core dispute as being between the United States and DPRK, and that it was not up to China to exert pressure.

Reuters quoted Zhang as saying that Pyongyang and Washington were at opposite ends of the spectrum when it came to the Six-Party Talks.

Experts also said China has done its bit to broker all parties to sit down and talk.

Since the DPRK quit the talks, China has increased its lobbying efforts by a series of high-level exchanges, including Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to the DPRK in October last year.

"The DPRK has recently signaled willingness to return to the talks and the ball is now in the US court," said Huang Youfu, director of the Institute of Korean Studies at the Central University for Nationalities.

The DPRK's move looks like an effort to increase its bargaining chip as it is trying to draw Washington's attention for a talk, no matter bilateral or multilateral.

Pyongyang walked away from the Six-Party Talks, which groups China, Japan, the DPRK, the ROK, Russia and the US, in April 2009, after the United Nations condemned a rocket launch by the DPRK.

But the country has expressed willingness to return to the talks.

"The chance for restarting the talks is still not very high and China has to work with other countries to restart the Six-Party Talks," Huang said.

"The denuclearization of the peninsula is good for China, and China will continue to make every effort to realize it. But joint effort is needed, rather than counting on one single country."

Ma Liyao and agencies contributed to this story.

China Daily