SEOUL, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Can this week's international talks on North Korea's nuclear drive reach a written agreement in which the defiant communist country would take steps to dismantle its nuclear weapons in return for economic and political benefits?
Officials and some analysts in Seoul sounded a note of optimism about the first tangible progress at the four-year-old six-nation nuclear talks, saying this round of negotiations, which opened Thursday, would be focused on discussing initial steps toward the North's nuclear disarmament.
"This week's talks would be focused on the North's moves to end its nuclear programs and corresponding measures by other parties," said a senior official at Seoul's Foreign Ministry.
"The purpose of this round of talks is producing a written agreement on the dismantling of the North's nuclear weapons to enter the early stage of implementing the Sept. 19 joint statement," he said.
He referred to the agreement signed Sept. 19, 2005, the first formal document since the six-way talks began in August 2003, involving the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia.
Under the Sept. 19 joint statement, the North agreed to abandon its existing nuclear weapons and all related programs as well as return to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty "at an early date."
In return, the North will benefit from energy aid from South Korea, talks to normalize relations with the United States and Japan, negotiations on the provision of light-water reactors to the North "at an appropriate time," as well as the establishment of a peace regime on the Korean peninsula to replace the armistice which ended the three-year Korean War in 1953.
But no further progress has since been made on implementing the joint statement and the six-way nuclear talks have been deadlocked over a U.S.-led financial crackdown on the North and Pyongyang's underground nuclear weapons test in October last year, which followed missile tests three months earlier.
South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator also expressed hope about concrete progress during this week's talks that may end on Friday, saying it was time for results.
"North Korea must be prepared to show, in actions, its commitment for denuclearization and must not make unreasonable demands; and the other five countries must not be ungenerous or hesitant in taking rational corresponding measures," South Korean envoy Chun Yung-woo told reporters before leaving for Beijing, which is hosting the six-party talks.
U.S. top nuclear envoy Christopher Hill also held out hope about this week's talks. "We all share ambitions for this round," Hill said in Beijing. "We want to make a good start, a good step forward" toward a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
Upon arriving in Beijing, North Korean envoy Kim Kye Gwan also said he would "discuss early steps in the implementation of the Sept. 19 joint statement." He said North Korea is ready to discuss the initial steps of its nuclear disarmament. "It all depends on how we start solving problems that need to be solved," he said.
Hill and Kim held a face-to-face meeting in Berlin in December, creating what both sides called progress and paving the way for lower-level negotiations to resolve the standoff over U.S. financial sanctions on the impoverished North.
The two sides have yet to find a solution to the financial issue, but hopes are running high about the resolution of the thorny issue in this week's talks.
North Korea has said it was willing to halt the operation of its graphite-moderated 5-megawatt reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, and allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to enter the country to confirm whether North Korea halts the operation, in return for lifting of the U.S. sanctions.
The United States has indicated that it would ease its financial sanctions, calling for the North's disarmament steps. The financial issue has been widely considered as the key sticking point in the prolonged nuclear standoff.
"The financial issue could be resolved in this week's talks. Both the United States and North Korea are under pressure to produce some progress in the nuclear issue," said Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea professor at Seoul's Dongguk University.
