2005-01-14-Engel-North Korea |
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Keeping
up with Jewish officeholders Rep.
Eliot Engel says North Korea will
return to nuclear conference table
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U.S.
Rep.
Eliot Engel (D-N.Y) said today (Friday, Jan. 14) that top North Korean
officials have agreed to return soon to six-party talks on North Korea’s
nuclear weapons that have been stalled since last June.
Engel
was part of a delegation led by Rep. Curt Welden (R-Penn.), vice chairman of the
House Armed Services Committee, that sought to persuade the North Koreans to sit
down again with representatives of the United States, Russia, China, Japan and
South Korea. "The
North Koreans know that the United States and the international community want
them to rid themselves of nuclear weapons, but they feared that when President
Bush added them to the ‘axis of evil’, they were next to be invaded after
Iraq,” Engel reported on his website on Friday, Jan. 14. “At this delicate
stage, I don’t think calling North Korea and its leaders names is helpful.” “We told them that the U.S. has no intention to attack North Korea, and that the Administration does not seek regime change there,” Engel said>. He
noted that he had visited North Korea in 2003, and this time “I saw a marked
softening of North Korea’s rhetoric and statements. By the time we were
through with our discussions, the North Koreans began to trust us and became
convinced that we were not there to make them look bad. They want reassurance
that the United States doesn’t want regime change and that we do not have
hostile intent.” |