Pyongyang’s nuke decision offers hope for dialogue

ANALYSTS have offered a cautious welcome to North Korea’s decision to suspend its nuclear activities, but say it is a positive step which could lead to the resumption of six-party talks.

The United States and North Korea announced on Wednesday that Pyongyang had agreed to a moratorium on nuclear testing and uranium enrichment activities and that the US will provide the North with 240,000 tons of food aid.

The announcement follows a third round of bilateral talks between the US and North Korea which took place February 23-24 in Beijing.

The six-party talks involving Japan, China, North and South Korea, Russia and the US, which aim at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, have been stalled since 2008.

However, the analysts offered a note of caution, citing North Korea’s record of back-tracking on previous agreements.

“We just have to wait and see if North Korea intends to honor the agreement” because challenges lie ahead in the process of fine-tuning details over its implementation, said Park Jong-chul, director of the Center for Unification Policy Studies.

“However it is a positive sign that dialogue has already started,” he said.

Report from ucanews.com