SEOUL, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Jeong Se-hyun, South Korea's point man on North Korea
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Before leaving for North Korea for high-level talks, Jeong, unification minister, said he would use this week's negotiations to press Pyongyang on an early resumption of diplomatic discussions on the nuclear standoff, saying inter-Korean dialogue was a "useful channel" to ease tensions. South Korea also announced plans to donate an additional 100,000 tons of fertilizer to famine-hit North Korea. Those efforts, however, failed to bear fruits as his North Korean counterpart refused to discuss the nuclear issue, saying the dispute was "a product of the U.S. hostile policy" toward Pyongyang.
On Thursday, North Korea said it would prove its nuclear-weapons capability unless the United States changes its policy toward the world's only Stalinist state.
"When time comes, action will be taken to physically open our nuclear deterrent force," the official Korea Central News Agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.
South Korean officials said it was likely a ploy by Pyongyang to gain further concessions.
The nuclear crisis erupted last year when North Korea acknowledged it had an illegal and clandestine nuclear weapons program, in violation of an agreement with Washington.
Critics rule out a major breakthrough in inter-Korean dialogue because the North remains reluctant to discuss the nuclear standoff and any other security issues with the South. Seoul needs to change its strategy from directly raising the nuclear issue to linking it with much-needed economic aid to encourage the North into concessions, they say.
A brief joint statement adopted at the end of the four-day talks, which concluded Friday, made no mention of a second round of multilateral nuclear talks, but repeated previous wordings about "continuing to work for inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation."
South Korean delegates had considered extending talks so they could have more time to persuade the North, but returned home when their Northern counterparts were defiant. It was the first time the sides wrapped up Cabinet-level talks -- the fifth since the since the crisis began a year ago -- without a commitment to make efforts toward a peaceful resolution of the nuclear standoff.
In the previous round of talks in April, the two sides agreed on an ambiguous joint statement that said they would "consult each other's position on the nuclear issue ... and continue to cooperate to resolve the issue peacefully through dialogue."
Throughout this week's talks that began Tuesday, South Korean delegates urged North Korea to show a clearer position on the issue, demanding the North join a second round of six-way nuclear talks.
The two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States met for the six-way talks met in Beijing in August for the first time to discuss Pyongyang's nuclear plans. The resumption of talks is doubtful because North Korea called the first meeting "useless" and "harmful."
South Korean officials consider the talks crucial for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
Seoul's negotiators also called on the North Koreans to refrain from aggravating the standoff, citing a recent North Korean threat to make atomic bombs using plutonium extracted from 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods.
Pyongyang wants a non-aggression treaty with the United States before it dismantles its nuclear facilities. Washington wants North Korea to abandon its program first.
In this week's talks
UGG Suburb Crochet Tall Bottes 5733, North Korea countered the South's requests on the nuclear issue by demanding the dissolution of anti-communist civic groups in the South. Pyongyang also said it wanted communist spies in South Korean prisons repatriated. In September 2000, South Korea sent home 63 North Korean spies and guerrillas who had been in Southern prison for decades, but the North says some 30 communist spies are still in detention. Seoul has denied there are any more North Korean spies who want to return home.
"The North came up with such unacceptable demands in a bid to counter the South's demand of nuclear talks and finally drove the talks into a rupture," a senior Unification Ministry official told United Press International. "It reflects the North's intentions to keep the South Koreans away from any nuclear negotiations."
The two sides, however, agreed to meet again next February for another round of Cabinet-level talks.
Critics, however, have criticized the Cabinet-level talks as "never-ending talks" and without any breakthrough. The two sides have made little progress during the past 12 rounds of Cabinet-level talks since the 2000 summit that initiated the process.
"South Korea is urged to come up with a new strategy in negotiations with North Korea so that they can produce a breakthrough on the security issue," Jun Sung-hoon, a researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, a South Korean government-run think tank. "The South needs to seek comprehensive discussions
UGG Bailey Button Fancy Bottes 5809, linking the nuclear issue with economic aid to induce the North into making concession."
