North Korea: Washington reassured a nervous North Korea yesterday that it sought a peaceful solution to the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions and offered a possible way forward, saying that diplomatic efforts to resolve it could proceed on several tracks.
President George W. Bush "has repeatedly said that we seek a peaceful and diplomatic end to the North Korean nuclear arms programme," Mr John Negroponte, US ambassador to the UN, said after closed-door Security Council talks on the matter.
Mr Bush has been pushing for a multilateral approach to the crisis. "Achieving a multilateral solution may take time, but efforts can proceed on several tracks," Mr Negroponte said.
North Korea has so far snubbed Washington's calls for a multilateral approach, saying that a solution would be possible only through face-to-face talks with the US, leading to a new non-aggression pact between the two countries.
The US had earlier been pressing the Security Council to issue a strong statement condemning Pyongyang for pulling out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and urging it to resume compliance with international measures intended to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. It was unable to win backing for such a statement from permanent council members China and Russia.
However, after the meeting - the council's first on the issue since Pyongyang withdrew from the non-proliferation pact and kicked out UN inspectors - Mr Negroponte said that Washington was satisfied with the outcome of the meeting. "We haven't taken any option off the table. But at this stage of diplomatic contacts, that have been ongoing in the region, we viewed this as an acceptable outcome of this particular consultation," he said.
Some diplomats had warned Washington that a strong council statement could escalate the crisis. "We would like to see the members of the council strongly reiterating their position in favour of a political solution of this issue. Condemnations would not help," Russia's UN ambassador, Mr Sergei Lavrov, said before the meeting began, calling instead for a "direct dialogue between the United States and North Korea".
The UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, said he thought the next step should be "to get the parties talking and find a format that will be acceptable to both parties and bring them to the table to talk".
The North Korean nuclear issue was referred to the Security Council by the International Atomic Energy Agency three months ago after Pyongyang informed the UN nuclear watchdog that it would no longer observe its non-proliferation obligations. - (Reuters)