VOA标准英语2010年-UN Urges North Korea to Continue Talks

UN political chief B. Lynn Pascoe speaks during a press conference at UNDP office building in Beijing, 12 Feb 2010

North Korea is not eager to return to six-party talks but has not rejected the idea, the U.N.'s top political official said on Friday following a trip to the reclusive country.

UN under-secretary-general for political affairs Lynn Pascoe said Friday he spent four days in Pyongyang having "useful talks" with senior members of the North Korean government, including top official Kim Yong-Nam .

But, Pascoe revealed that North Korea is not eager to return to six-party talks.

"The attitude right now as I said is they are not happy with the sanctions and they were certainly not eager   - not ruling out but certainly not eager  - to return to the Six Party Talks, so we'll see where that comes," he said.

Pascoe's comments came as news reports said North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan, was planning a rare visit to the U.S. next month.

But the UN envoy¹ refused to speculate on such a visit, citing the sensitivity surrounding the latest attempts by China this week to persuade North Korea to return to the six-party talks.

Meanwhile in Beijing, Chinese and North Korean officials met for a third day Thursday to try to restart the six-party talks, which Pyongyang has boycotted² since last year.

And the foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan met in Seoul and demanded that North Korea return to the six-party talks unconditionally³.  South Korea's Yu Myung-hwan and his Japanese counterpart, Katsuya Okada, said North Korea also must make "practical progress" in denuclearization, before it can get any political or economic concessions⁴.

Pascoe flies onto Tokyo and Seoul Saturday to brief the Japanese and South Korean governments.

The six-party talks involve the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, Japan and China.  North Korea has conditioned its return to the talks on a lifting of international sanctions and a start to peace negotiations⁵ with the United States.

A 1953 armistice ended the Korean War, but a formal peace treaty has never been signed

 

1 envoy   

n.使节，使者，代表，公使

参考例句：

• Their envoy showed no sign of responding to our proposals.他们的代表对我方的提议毫无回应的迹象。
• The government has not yet appointed an envoy to the area.政府尚未向这一地区派过外交官。

2 boycotted   

抵制，拒绝参加( boycott的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Athletes from several countries boycotted the Olympic Games. 有好几国的运动员抵制奥林匹克运动会。
• The opposition party earlier boycotted the Diet agenda, demanding Miyaji's resignation. 反对党曾杯葛国会议程，要宫路下台。

3 unconditionally   

adv.无条件地

参考例句：

• All foreign troops must be withdrawn immediately and unconditionally. 所有外国军队必须立即无条件地撤出。
• It makes things very awkward to have your girls going back unconditionally just now! 你们现在是无条件上工，真糟糕！ 来自子夜部分

4 concessions   

n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权

参考例句：

• The firm will be forced to make concessions if it wants to avoid a strike. 要想避免罢工，公司将不得不作出一些让步。
• The concessions did little to placate the students. 让步根本未能平息学生的愤怒。

5 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。