Kim Jong-il wants restart of six-party talks at ‘early date’

[bluesky79]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told Chinese President Hu Jintao that he wants another round of the six-party nuclear disarmament talks to begin soon.

China’s Xinhua news agency reported that Kim also hopes to ease tension between the Koreas:

Kim said the DPRK hopes to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula, sticks to the objective of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and believes that the six-party talks should be resumed at an early date

DPRK stands for Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, the official name of North Korea.

North Korea uses “Korean Peninsula” when talking about denuclearization because they claim that the US and South Korea also have nuclear weapons and are demanding access to military facilities in the south as a counterpoint to the nuclear facility inspections that the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency have demanded.

In the meantime, information has leaked that North Korea and China are about to embark on round of expanded economic cooperation in the far northeastern corner of North Korea. The plan calls for joint development of Hwanggumpyong in the Tumen River and the nearby Rajin-Sonbong special economic zone.

The Chosun Ilbo reports that the Chinese will get a much better deal than South Korea got with the Kaesong Industrial Complex.

According to the document, the North agreed with China to open up Hwanggumpyong more radically than the Kaesong Industrial Complex to foreign businesses. The two industrial zones will have landline and mobile phone connections as well as Internet access, which is unavailable elsewhere in the North. It will also let both foreign manufacturers and banks in.

The plan envisages a more flexible labor market system, allowing foreign companies to hire and lay off North Korean workers on their own terms, while private ownership is guaranteed by making it possible to transfer companies’ assets to other people.

At the Kaesong Industrial Complex, by contrast, South Korean companies cannot freely hire or fire workers, and experience great difficulty in communications, transport and customs.

Should the proposed Chinese-North Korean joint ventures actually be implemented, the contrast of rules governing those ventures with the more restrictive nature of the Kaesong venture will make the latter much less attractive for investors.

What do you think are th preliminary conditions for six-party talks?