By Reuben Staines
Staff Reporter


The six-party talks aimed at resolving the standoff over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs could lose effectiveness if they stall further, a report released Tuesday by the U.S. State Department said.

The State Department’s Performance and Accountability Report for Fiscal Year 2004 said its goal of winning North Korea’s agreement to verifiable dismantlement of its nuclear programs has failed so far, with Pyongyang refusing to engage in substantive discussions.

``Continuing stalemate could call into question utility of either bilateral or multilateral negotiations as a means to resolve crisis, and has inhibited progress on the ballistic missile issue,’’ it said.

The report came just one day after U.S. President George W. Bush reiterated his commitment to multilateral talks to resolve the nuclear dispute.

``I stand on continuing the six-party talks with North Korea to convince Kim Jong-il to give up his weapons systems,’’ Bush said during a year-end news conference at the White House.

``Our country has tried a strategy of bilateral relationships in hopes that we can convince Kim Jong-il. It didn’t work,’’ he said, referring to the 1994 agreement with North Korea that defused an earlier crisis over its nuclear ambitions.

The accord unraveled after Pyongyang reportedly admitted to running a clandestine nuclear arms program based on highly enriched uranium in late 2002.

``In other words, (Kim Jong-il) broke the agreement,’’ Bush said. ``I think it’s an important lesson for this administration to learn and that the best way to convince him to disarm is to get others to weigh in as well.’’

Three rounds of six-party negotiations to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions have brought little progress.

Pyongyang refused to participate in a scheduled fourth round of talks in September, citing ``hostile’’ U.S. policies toward it.

The State Department report said the failure to verify North Korea’s nuclear dismantlement may lead to the destabilization of not only the international treaty on nuclear nonproliferation, but also other nonproliferation regimes.

The department’s main goals for the fiscal year also included North Korea’s return to the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, with the country’s plutonium reprocessing and uranium enrichment programs shut down and eliminated in ``a verifiable and irreversible manner.’’

North Korea announced its withdrawal from the international nonproliferation regime early last year.

The report said the other participants in the six-party talks have agreed with the U.S. government on ``the need for the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear programs.’’

It said while the State Department was unable to prevent North Korea from continuing to enhance its nuclear capabilities, it did achieve some success in making North Korea maintain its flight-test moratorium.

But the report said overall performance of the department in limiting North Korean exports of missiles and related technologies was ``below target,’’ resulting in only ``a slight reduction’’ in missile-related activities.

rjs@koreatimes.co.kr