Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Song Min Soon said on the 20th, “The basic principle of rice support for North Korea should be carried out in a direction which helps the progress of the six-party talks. This principle can be applied flexibly.”
Minster Song had a customary briefing at the office building of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Seoul on this day and said, “If one looks at the development of the six-party talks, the right time for support according to the principle we have pursued until now has arrived.”
He also said, “We plan to not only implement the February 13 Agreement, but to actively use case-by-case or total contact or a formal or informal approach for denuclearization.”
Song said, “We are in the internal process of negotiations for sending 50,000 tons of petroleum support around the same time the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectorate returns to work and nuclear facilities are abandoned in North Korea.”
Especially, he expressed, “We have to activate working groups for the normalization of relations among related nations and for the matter related to abandoning nuclear facilities and energy and economic support. We can hold this group without going through the general conference of the Six-Party talks or actual working groups’ meetings.”
Song said regarding the time period for abandoning nuclear facilities in North Korea, “It is difficult to conclude whether the current time of abolition will be delayed or speeded up, but looking at the results from the IAEA and North Korea talks, we can tell more specifically.”
