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Talks on N. Korea tangle from today

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE APRIL 22. Confirming today that talks on the North Korean nuclear issue would be held in Beijing for an unspecified period, China today characterised the prospective parleys as a `tripartite' exercise that would involve the U.S. as also the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or the North) besides itself.

China did not, however, state when exactly the in camera talks, which would remain out of bounds for the press, might begin. The general expectation in South Korea and the U.S. is that these parleys would begin tomorrow and last for three days. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, said in Beijing today that China had invited the DPRK and the U.S. to participate in a tripartite exercise aimed at discussing North Korea's nuclear issue. The talks, he said, would be aimed at enabling the three parties to "understand each other's stand more clearly and ease the current tension in the Korean peninsula."

According to him, "the content and form of the talks are yet to be decided by the three parties." By promising to participate in the proposed tripartite talks, the U.S. has, at least for the present, held in abeyance any plans that it might have to bring about a regime change in North Korea. The diplomatic bottomline is that any direct encounter with the DPRK delegation, albeit in the presence of the Chinese side, would amount to a continued recognition of the Kim Jong-il regime, on a de facto basis at the least.

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