Panetta Skeptical about Talks with N. Korea
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressed skepticism Thursday about the outcome of his country's talks with North Korea, days after a second round of discussions was held in Geneva.
The talks on Monday and Tuesday, following up a meeting in New York in July, were intended to pave the way for the resumption of six-nation negotiations on the North's nuclear disarmament.
Panetta said there were indications some progress was made but no agreement was reached and it was unclear where the talks were headed.
"The word skepticism would be in order at this time as to what may or may not happen in those discussions," he told reporters during a visit to South Korea.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said earlier Thursday the Geneva discussions made some progress but no breakthrough.
"There is a substantial amount of work that needs to be done. No decisions have been taken about next steps," Campbell told journalists during a stopover in Seoul.
"We clearly stated our position on pre-steps," he said, without elaborating.
The North quit the six-party nuclear talks in April 2009, a month before staging its second atomic weapons test.
It has since repeatedly said it wants to come back without preconditions to the negotiations, which group the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.
Washington and its allies say Pyongyang must first take steps to show its sincerity, such as shutting down a uranium enrichment plant that could be converted to make nuclear weapons.
North Korea said Thursday the Geneva talks made progress and the two sides would hold further meetings.
"Both sides decided to further ... contacts and talks to discuss and solve the pending issues in the light of building confidence," a foreign ministry spokesman told Pyongyang's official news agency.
However, the spokesman reiterated that the full six-nation nuclear negotiations should restart without any preconditions.
Panetta said China, the North's closest ally and economic partner, could do more to persuade it to resume negotiations and scrap its nuclear capabilities.
"There are moments when we think they're urging North Korea to engage but frankly I think China can do more to try to get North Korea to do the right thing," he told reporters.
The U.S. defense chief acknowledged that Beijing does attempt to influence Pyongyang but sometimes "North Korea doesn't pay attention. The hope is that they'll continue to push North Korea to try to do the right thing."
He was speaking at a press conference with the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Martin Dempsey, and the commander of 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea, General James Thurman.
Panetta arrived Wednesday in Seoul, the last leg of a tour which also covered Indonesia and Japan.
Earlier Thursday he held talks with his counterpart Kim Kwan-Jin, President Lee Myung-Bak and Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan.
Inter-Korean ties have been tense since Seoul accused its neighbor of torpedoing a warship in March 2010 with the loss of 46 lives.
The North denied responsibility for the sinking but shelled a border island last November, killing four South Koreans.
U.S. and South Korean defense officials were to hold a meeting Friday on military cooperation to deter North Korean attacks. Panetta has said the North remains a "serious threat" to its neighbor.
Source: Agence France Presse
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