Seoul, Dec 09: A US-backed proposal to end the North Korean nuclear crisis does not specify how the communist state should dismantle its nuclear weapons program or how Washington would provide it with security assurances, a senior South Korean official said today. ``These are matters of the biggest significance, and they are matters that should be discussed and resolved when talks resume,'' Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-Hyuck said. Last week, the United States, Japan and South Korea worked out a statement on how to end the nuclear crisis, and has asked china to deliver it to North Korea. If North Korea accepts the proposal, the six nations would gather in Beijing for a second round of talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. The proposal is aimed at persuading North Korea to join a second round of talks, and thus ``contains only things that all six countries agree to,'' lee said in an interview with Seoul's a news agency radio. It was constructed ``in succinct and implicative wording aimed at avoiding disputes'' ahead of a new round of talks. Lee did not divulge details of the document, which will become the basis for discussions when the six nations gather again.
Bureau Report