By Kim Deok-hyun
SEOUL, Oct. 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's young leader is unlikely to give up his nuclear weapons capability because it is the only achievement by his late father, Kim Jong-il, a former U.S. envoy said Thursday, saying the goal of denuclearizing the North is "perhaps impossible."

   James Kelly, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state who led the American delegation at the six-nation talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear weapons program, also expressed skepticism about talks with Pyongyang, even if the six-party talks resume.

   "Since the only achievement during the entire period of Kim Jong-il's rule, prior to his death, was the achievement of nuclear weapons," Kelly told Yonhap News Agency in an interview in Seoul.

   "Since North Korea has nothing else to be proud of, they are proud of having nuclear weapons, so it can be very difficult to get them to give these up and perhaps impossible," said Kelly, who served as America's top diplomat for East Asia between 2001 and 2005.

   In 2002, Kelly visited North Korea and said he had evidence of a then-secret uranium-enriching program that could provide the communist regime with new material to make atomic weapons, in addition to its plutonium-based weapons program.

   Eight years later, North Korea revealed an industrial-scale uranium enrichment facility, creating new hurdles to efforts by South Korea and the U.S. and other regional powers to reopen the six-party talks which also involve North Korea, China, Russia and Japan.

   North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, with concerns persisting that the North might carry out a third underground nuclear test following a failed rocket launch in April this year.

   Efforts to reopen the six-party talks, which were last held in late 2008, have been frozen since the April rocket launch, but analysts expect regional powers to resume diplomacy with North Korea sometime next year, after South Korea and China face leadership changes in coming months, along with the November elections in the U.S.

   Kelly agreed, saying, "I think it is quite possible that there could be another session of the six-party talks."

   Asked whether the six-party talks would still be an appropriate response to resolve the North's nuclear standoff, Kelly replied, "Will they be successful? Not unless judgments in North Korea change."

   Some experts have said that South Korea and the U.S. should set a realistic goal of denuclearizing North Korea because Washington's target for "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization (CVID)" is unachievable due to the North's uranium enrichment program, which makes it impossible for experts to verify the North's words on compliance.

   "There is a difference between the realistic goal and the eventual goal which may turn out to be realistic even if conditions make that difficult now," Kelly said.

   "I think the American policy remains that nuclear weapons in North Korea are profoundly unstable," he said.

   "And so that remains a goal, we want to get there. That's a tough proposition," said Kelly. "Maybe North Korea might sell it, but right now we don't know what the price is, but the return will be very, very high."

   kdh@yna.co.kr
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