U.S.-N.Korea talks key to breakthrough on nuclear issue - MP

MOSCOW, December 15 (RIA Novosti) - Bilateral contacts between North Korean and United States diplomats alongside the six-party talks on the reclusive communist state's nuclear problem could be the key to resolving the issue, a senior Russian MP said Friday.

The six-nation talks are scheduled to resume December 18. The negotiations, involving North and South Korea, Russia, Japan, China and the U.S., were launched in 2003 to persuade North Korea to give up its controversial nuclear program after Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Konstantin Kosachev, head of the State Duma Foreign Relations Committee, said the round of talks due to be held in Beijing may not take place.

"North Korea has repeatedly reneged on previous agreements at the last moment," he said. "In this context, bilateral contacts between North Korean and U.S. delegations alongside multilateral consultations in the six-nation format are of key importance."

The lawmaker criticized the U.S. for branding North Korea an "Axis of Evil" country, and said open calls for regime-change had hardened Pyongyang's resolve, and may have provided a strong motivation for the development of the country's nuclear program.

He said direct U.S.-North Korean contacts should aim to "separate two issues - the North Korean nuclear problem and the [political] evaluation of the North Korean regime."

"As long as the U.S. links these two issues, we have an effect that is the opposite of that which the international community is counting on," he said.

The Russian lawmaker said if these two subjects are separated, "we can make swift progress on freezing the North Korean nuclear program."

The six-nation talks stalled in November 2005 over Pyongyang's demand that the U.S. lift sanctions imposed on it for its alleged involvement in counterfeiting and other illegal activities.

Following North Korea's October 9 announcement that it had conducted its first nuclear bomb test, the UN Security Council passed a special resolution October 14 blocking all deliveries of military equipment and supplies to the country.

Pyongyang's nuclear test provoked widespread calls in the Japanese leadership for a stronger strategic defense capability; Pyongyang has accused Japan of obstructing talks, and demanded Japan's withdrawal from the negotiations.