Officials from the Republic of Korea (ROK), the United States and Japan held trilateral meeting in Seoul on Monday, using the last chance before the opening of the new round six-party nuclear talks to map out their joint position.  

The last-minute consultation was held just two days before the second round six-party nuclear talks slated to be convened on Wednesday in Beijing, which will again bring China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the United States, Russia, the ROK and Japan together.

ROK Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck, US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly and Mitoji Yabunaka, a director-general at the Japanese Foreign Ministry, took part in the trilateral consultations, which attracted much media attentions.

At the beginning of the one-day discussion, Lee Soo-hyuck expressed his hope that "this consultation will bring fruitful results for the preparation of the second round of talks."

It is clear that Seoul used this chance to acquire consensus from the other two countries over its "detailed plan" in resolving the 16-month long DPRK nuclear issue.

Lee said after the meeting that the US side showed a positive response to a series of ROK-proposed conditions to be attached to any offer by the DPRK of a nuclear freeze.

"If such conditions are enforced, the United States has no strong objection to a DPRK nuclear freeze," Lee quoted Kelly as saying.

Kelly's expression was widely viewed as softening from the persistent position the US has been hold.

Local media quoted diplomatic sources as saying the "conditions" include Pyongyang's freeze must cover "all" of its nuclear programs, and be followed "in a short period of time" by steps to ultimately dismantle nuclear programs and allow verification.

Pyongyang said on Jan. 6 that it "is set to refrain from test and production of nuclear weapons and stop even operating nuclear power industry for a peaceful purpose as first-phase measures of the package solution" to the nuclear issue.

But, simultaneously, the DPRK underscored the US should provide compensation for the freeze move.

However, the US rejected the Pyongyang's proposal, insisting only after the DPRK dismantles nuclear program in "complete, verifiable and irreversible" way, Pyongyang's concern can be discussed.

Just a week ago, John Robert Bolton, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, said in Beijing that Washington's stance over the issue did not change.

The one-day trilateral discussion also touched the DPRK unclear highly-enriched uranium (HEU) program, which recently became more sensitive after a Pakistani scientist confessed he has transferred nuclear technology to Pyongyang.

The United States has long suspected that the DPRK had HEU program in addition to its admitted plutonium-based program. But Pyongyang earlier this month refuted the allegation that its nuclear technology was transferred from Pakistan.

Seoul worried the HEU issue may be a hurdle in the six-party talks, so it proposed in the trilateral talks that the issue be couched in vague language and referred to only as "all" of the DPRK's nuclear programs.

But the stances of the US and Japan over the HEU issue were not available.

One thing is clear, that is Seoul wants to play more active role during the drawing multilateral nuclear meeting.

Lee Soo-hyuck, the ROK head delegate to the six-party talks, said Seoul will try to get the Beijing meeting to issue a joint statement which will contain a DPRK promise to scrap its nuclear weapons program, to set up a technical working group as part of the six-nation forum and set a new date for the next meeting.

"If participants can agree on those things, the Beijing meeting will end with great success," Lee added.

(Xinhua News Agency February 24, 2004)