专访：美国尚未准备返回六方会谈

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号：tingroom，领取免费英语资料大礼包。

　　"I think the U.S. would say at this point it's premature¹ to return to the six-party talks. And I think that China also understands that," said Bonnie S. Glaser, a senior adviser² for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.

　　So China and the United States have to work together, along with South Korea, to make it clear to Pyongyang "what steps they have to take in order to get back to diplomacy," Glaser told Xinhua.

　　At their fifth round of Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) talks last week, China and the United States reiterated³ their commitment to denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. Weeks earlier, Presidents Xi Jinping and Barack Obama agreed during their summit in California to cooperate on the issue.

　　The six-party talks stalled in 2009 after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) quit the process in protest of a UN statement condemning⁴ its long-range rocket test in mid-April that year.

　　Tensions over the peninsula have been high since December last year after the DPRK successfully launched a satellite into space. The country also conducted a nuclear test in February in defiance⁵ of international warnings.

　　However, it has recently softened⁶ its tone and proposed on June 16 to hold high-level talks with the United States. Kim Kye Gwan, the country's first deputy foreign minister, said later during a visit to China that the DPRK was ready to join in any form of talks, including the six-party talks, in order to resolve the nuclear issue through peaceful negotiations⁷.

　　Washington responded to the DPRK proposal by saying that it wanted to see "credible⁸" actions from the DPRK before sitting down for negotiations.

　　Meanwhile, China said all relevant parties should cherish recent positive momentum⁹ surrounding the Korean nuclear issue and make joint¹⁰ efforts to ease tensions and create conditions for an early resumption of the six-party talks.

　　Former U.S. Ambassador to China Stapleton Roy told Xinhua that the U.S. and Chinese positions on denuclearization "have been rather closely aligned¹¹."

　　"Both sides recognize that the purpose of the six-party talks that we would like to restart is denuclearization," said Roy, now director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Wilson Center.

　　"So I think we have a shared interest in credible actions by North Korea (the DPRK) that would re-establish the possibility of denuclearization, otherwise we are not going to be able to enter into negotiations and the six-party talks," he said.

分享到：