6-Way Nuclear Talks Might Be Upgraded

The upcoming six-way talks on North Korea's nuclear crisis in Beijing may be upgraded to a vice ministerial-level meeting, a Japanese daily reported yesterday.

"In hopes of generating more substantive discussions, the five governments involved in the latest round of talks are considering raising the rank of the representatives," the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.

"Three-way talks in April between the U.S., China and North Korea were held at the bureau chief level, but the North Korean representative acted only as a messenger, carrying documents from the meeting back to Pyongyang," it added.

Delegates from Japan, the United States, South Korea, China and Russia are expected to attend the Beijing meeting later this month or in early September, in addition to North Korea.

"Their aim is for North Korea's First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Sok-ju to attend, who is a close adviser to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il," the newspaper said.

"If the talks are raised to the vice ministerial level, the United States will likely send Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, and Japan will probably select Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Hitoshi Tanaka," it added.

Kang was Pyongyang's chief negotiator with the United States in 1994 when another nuclear crisis erupted. The two sides settled the dispute by drawing up the Agreed Framework. He also sat in on the summit meeting between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Kim last September.

Last week, North Korea accepted six-way talks to include North and South Korea, Russia, Japan, China and the United States to inevitably end the nuclear crisis.

But in a possible blow to anti-nuclear proliferation efforts, the Stalinist regime is reportedly in talks to export its Daepodong 2, long-range ballistic missiles to Iran.

According to the Japanese Sankei newspaper yesterday, both countries are in talks to jointly develop nuclear warheads, and will likely reach an agreement by October.

A North Korean arms export company known as the Changgwang Sinyong Corp is handling the deal with Iranian military and aerospace industry officials, the conservative Sankei said. The firm is already sanctioned by the U.S. government for alleged arms sales to Iran.

Iran and North Korea were included last year in the "axis of evil" with Iraq by U.S. President George W. Bush and accused of aiming to spread weapons of mass destruction.

North Korea has been involved in a standoff with the United States since October over Pyongyang`s nuclear weapons program. It has claimed to have already begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods which experts say can be used to build several nuclear weapons.

U.S. intelligence has said it believes North Korea might have already built one or two nuclear weapons.