US Envoy Says Nuclear Talks with Pyongyang at Crucial Stage

The U.S. negotiator at the six-party talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up nuclear weapons says the reclusive communist country has the choice of engaging in diplomacy or suffering the consequences of sanctions. From Beijing, where the formal talks get under way on Monday after a 13-month hiatus, Roger Wilkison reports Christopher Hill says the negotiations have reached a crucial stage.

参加旨在劝说朝鲜放弃核武器的六方会谈的美国代表说，这个封闭共产国家有一个机会作出外交努力或者承受制裁的火候。经历了13个月的休会后六方会谈在周一举行，Roger Wilkison从北京对 Christopher Hill 说，谈判进入关键时刻。

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters in the Chinese capital that he and his fellow negotiators from North and South Korea, Japan, Russia and China have difficult days ahead.

助理国务卿Christopher Hill在中国首都告诉记者说，等在他和他来自朝鲜、韩国、日本、俄罗斯和中国谈判对手前面的是一段艰苦的日子。

Hill arrived in Beijing Sunday for the talks.

Hill是在周日抵达北京准备谈判的。

The talks on North Korea's nuclear program have gone on intermittently since 2003. Pyongyang has boycotted them since November of last year, in anger at U.S. financial sanctions imposed on the Stalinist state for allegedly counterfeiting U.S. currency and money laundering.

这个关于朝鲜核计划的会谈自2003年开始断断续续地进行着，平壤自去年11月开始抵制（boycott）这个会谈，因为美国声称这个斯大林体制的国家伪造美圆和洗黑钱，而采取了金融制裁，朝鲜为此动怒。

Shortly after it detonated a nuclear device in October, North Korea agreed to return to the talks. It says, however, that it must now be considered a nuclear power and will not give up its weapons until the United States changes what Pyongyang calls Washington's hostile attitude toward it.

10月爆炸了一个核装置后不久，朝鲜方面便同意重返六方会谈。然而据说，它必须被承认是一个有核国家，而且不会放弃核武器，直到美国改变平壤认为美国对其存在的敌意。

Hill says it is time for North Korea to begin implementing its September 2005 agreement to scrap its nuclear weapons in exchange for aid and security guarantees from the United States and other countries.

HILL说，现在是平壤方面开始履行它在2005年9月达成的放弃核武器的协议，作为它从美国和其他国家获得援助和安全保障的交换。

Sounding impatient with Pyongyang's bargaining tactics, Hill says negotiations have now reached what he called a fork in the road.

对平壤讨价还价的策略表现得不耐烦了，HILL说谈判已经到了他所说的岔路口了。

"We can either go forward on a diplomatic track, or we have to go to a much more difficult track, and that is a track that involves sanctions and, I think, ultimately will really be very harmful to the D.P.R.K. economy," Hill says.

“我们能或者通过外交途径，或者必须采取更困难的其他途径，哪个途径就是采取制裁，我想，最终真的会对朝鲜民主主义人民共和国的经济带来危害，。”HILL说。

The D.P.R.K., or Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is North Korea's formal name.

朝鲜民主主义人民共和国是朝鲜的官方名称。

The United Nations imposed trade sanctions on North Korea after its nuclear test, but it is unclear how much effect they have had on the impoverished country. China and South Korea have been reluctant to penalize their neighbor.

美国在朝鲜核试验后对其采取了贸易制裁。但是不清楚对这个贫瘠的国家有多大的作用(but it is unclear how much effects the have had on the impoverished country)，中国和韩国不情愿制裁他们的邻居。(China and south Korea have been reluctant to penalize their neighbor)

North Korea has demanded that the United States lift its financial sanctions as a condition of the negotiations. Hill says his delegation is prepared to discuss that issue in a separate working group but that the real issue at stake is getting North Korea to take concrete steps toward denuclearization.

朝鲜要求美国取消作为谈判的条件。HILL说他的代表团准备就这个问题在工作组中展开讨论，但是真正的关键问题是让朝鲜向放弃核武器的目标作出正确抉择。