SEOUL: North Korea said on Saturday it was willing to return to nuclear disarmament talks and signaled satisfaction that a U.N. Security Council statement did not directly blame it for the sinking of a South Korean warship.
China, the North’s sole key ally, urged regional powers to put the navy ship sinking behind them and return to the negotiating table to end a cycle of confrontation that has raised security tensions to new heights since late March.
On Friday, the Security Council condemned the sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan in March that killed 46 sailors but stopped short of directly blaming North Korea, an outcome hailed by Pyongyang’s U.N. ambassador as “a great diplomatic victory.”
Six-way nuclear talks involving North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China have been in limbo since 2007 and a 2005 disarmament deal appeared to lose relevance when Pyongyang tested a long-range missile and a nuclear device.
“The DPRK will make consistent efforts for the conclusion of a peace treaty and the denuclearization through the six-party talks conducted on equal footing,” the North’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said in comments carried by the KCNA news agency.
“We take note of the … statement saying that ‘the Security Council encourages the settlement of outstanding issues on the Korean Peninsula by peaceful means to resume direct dialogue and negotiation through appropriate channels’,” it added.
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