Framework for new negotiations with North Korea

Fresh off his trip as a private citizen to North Korea, Bill Richardson, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called the trip to the isolated country a success.

"The South Koreans exercised their self defense and the North Koreans demonstrated that maybe they're ready for serious negotiations," Richardson said.

The North agreed to allow International Atomic Energy Agency personnel to return to a nuclear facility in the country and agreed to negotiate the sale of 12,000 fuel rods and ship them to an outside country, presumably to South Korea. The fuel rods would be enough to make about six to eight nuclear weapons.

The North also agreed to consider Richardson's proposal for a military commission among the United States, North Korea and South Korea as well as a separate hotline for the Koreas' militaries.

"This is a start of a new chapter," Richardson said. "I think there's a new opportunity for all countries, the six-party countries, to come together, and make potential negotiations."

But Richardson said North Korea needs to improve its behavior. "That has to be established first. But they made a move in that direction. … Right now what needs to happen is North Korea needs to abide by the 2005 declaration that says they are going to denuclearize, get rid of their nuclear weapons. That needs to be a framework for new negotiations."

Will Bill Richardson be travelling to North Korea?

U.S. President Barack Obama is considering a reversal of North Korean policy by allowing New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to accept an invitation to visit Pyongyang, multiple diplomatic sources told the JoongAng Ilbo.

The sources said Han Song-ryol, deputy North Korean ambassador to the United Nations, invited Richardson to visit the communist state to discuss various diplomatic issues, including the sinking of the Cheonan.

“The North’s tactic resembles its actions in the case of the two American journalists who were released in August last year after former U.S. President Bill Clinton paid a visit to Pyongyang,” one source said. 

“The Obama administration wants to end the disputes stemming from the Cheonan sinking and is analyzing whether Richardson’s Pyongyang visit can be used as an opportunity to deliver a message to the North Korean government that the U.S. is committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” the source said. 

Richardson visited Pyongyang in 2007 to recover remains of American servicemen killed in the Korean War.