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Tripartite talks begin in Beijing

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE April 23. The highly sensitive tripartite talks on the strategic standoff between the U.S. and North Korea, concerning Pyongyang's suspected nuclear weapons programme, began in Beijing today at an undisclosed location.

No authentic details could be ascertained quickly about the substance of the initial contacts.

The talks will last until Friday. The U.S. side is led by its Assistant Secretary of State, James Kelly, while the North Korean delegation is headed by Jo Myong Rok.

While it was not immediately clear as to who had been nominated to head the Chinese delegation, Mr. Kelly called on China's Vice-Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, on the eve of these talks.

As for the semantics about the diplomatic format of these parleys, China has officially characterised them as a `trilateral' exercise, while the U.S. is depicting these talks as a preliminary dialogue that could lead to a multilateral process that would involve Japan and South Korea as well and, perhaps, even Russia at some stage and if required.

North Korea, on the other hand, sees the current Beijing meeting as a virtual bilateral exercise involving the U.S., with China playing only a relevant role as a facilitator.

In a sense, China also tends to view the latest talks as the first opportunity for a `direct' diplomatic encounter between the U.S. and North Korea, albeit within a bilateral-plus format, as it were.

As for the substance of the present Beijing meeting, the U.S. has underlined that it would not settle for anything less than a verifiable and credible dismantling of the nuclear-weapons capabilities of North Korea.

In contrast, North Korea maintains that its suspected nuclear-weapons capabilities are but a figment of Washington's imagination.

On the eve of today's meeting, North Korea again warned its citizens that the danger of a "nuclear war'' on the Korean peninsula, alleged to be traceable to the U.S.' intentions, was increasing by the hour.

Catastrophic events

AFP reports from Moscow:

A top Russian Foreign Ministry official was quoted as telling reporters today in Tokyo that a `catastrophic' development of events in North Korea's nuclear standoff with the United States was imminent, and could occur within the next day.

``It is probable that, as early as tomorrow, there will be a catastrophic development of events,'' ITAR-TASS quoted the Deputy Foreign Minister, Alexander Losyukov, as saying.

Mr. Losyukov holds the Asian affairs brief in the Russian Foreign Ministry.

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