Disarmament talks leave envoys optimistic

BEIJING – Talks on North Korea’s nuclear programs resumed on a positive note Thursday, with the Chinese hosts distributing a draft agreement and the North agreeing in principle to initial steps to disarm.

Envoys from six nations are trying to agree on steps to implement a September 2005 deal in which North Korea pledged to disarm in exchange for aid and security guarantees. The 2005 deal – the only one to emerge since negotiations began in 2003 – was a broad statement of principles that did not outline any concrete steps for dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program.

The main U.S. envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, said the new proposal would be “a set of actions that would have to be taken in a finite amount of time.” He declined to give specifics but said moves would occur in a matter of weeks.

“The delegations are coalescing around some of the themes that we believe should be the basis for a first step in implementing” the 2005 agreement, Hill said.

A South Korean official, speaking early today on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing diplomacy, said China circulated a draft proposal. The official gave no details, but other delegates said earlier that the agreement would outline initial steps for implementing the 2005 accord.

Such an agreement would set the stage for the first tangible steps in more than three years of negotiations.

The North’s chief negotiator had said before the talks began that his country was “prepared to discuss first-stage measures” toward nuclear disarmament.