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U.S., S.Korea put hope in China's influence on N.Korea

U.S., S.Korea put hope in China's influence on N.Korea
By Jong-Heon Lee
United Press International
Published February 15, 2005

SEOUL -- South Korea has geared up diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution of the nuclear crisis worsened by North Korea's declaration that it possesses atomic weapons and will not attend future disarmament talks.

Upbeat about a U.S. pledge to hold fast to the multilateral talks to end the nuclear standoff, Seoul officials said on Tuesday that they would mobilize all diplomatic channels to bring North Korea back to the stalled six-nation talks involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

The government plans to dispatch a high-level envoy to China later this week to ask Pyongyang's closest ally to persuade North Korea to return to the negotiation table, according to Foreign Ministry officials.

"Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon will leave for China soon after Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon returns home from a U.S. visit on Wednesday," a ministry official said. "Song will ask Beijing to exert its influence on North Korea to press it to return to the negotiating table," he said.

Upon arriving in Seoul, Ban would also discuss the nuclear issue with his Chinese counterpart by telephone, the official said.

In Washington, Ban was pleased by U.S. officials' promise to rule out military options and defuse the nuclear standoff in a peaceful and diplomatic way. Ban said he and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reached the consensus that China's role is crucial in persuading North Korea back to the dialogue table.

"China's role is very important," Ban told reporters after meeting Rice. "We agreed to expedite efforts for a diplomatic and peaceful solution of the North Korean nuclear issue," he said. "Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also told me that it's necessary to let China increase its role a little more."

South Korean and U.S. officials believe that China does not want to see the collapse of the six-way talks formula, Ban said.

China, North Korea's closest ally and biggest aid donor, has hosted three rounds of the six-nation talks since 2003. But the multilateral talks made no significant progress yet, with suspicions that North Korea has stalled negotiations to buy time to develop nuclear weapons. Pyongyang has blamed Washington's "hostile" policy as a reason to boycott the talks.

China plans to dispatch a high-level communist party official, Wang Jialui, to Pyongyang later this week to try to persuade North Korea to change its mind, according to Seoul officials.

The visit would serve as a litmus test for Beijing's diplomatic power on North Korea. "We may find out Pyongyang's real intention after Wang's visit," a senior official said, expressing an optimistic view.

"China is expected to influence to expand its influence to North Korea to resume the six-nation talks, as part of efforts to boost its political role in the region," said Lee Yong-joon, the strategy chief at the Presidential Committee on Northeast Asian Cooperation Initiative.

"Pyongyang is not in position to reject Beijing's pressure as it has heavily depended on Chinese economic aid for survival," he said.

South Korea also plans to boost coordination efforts with the United States and Japan to press North Korea to drop its nuclear ambitions. Seoul is partners with Washington, Tokyo and Moscow in trying to get China-supported North Korea back into the six-party talks.

"Senior officials from South Korea, Japan and the United States would meet late this month to discuss countermeasures against Pyongyang's nuclear declaration," a Foreign Ministry official said.

Officials also said Seoul would push for economic cooperation projects with North Korea despite the deepening nuclear row. "We will use the channels for inter-Korean economic cooperation to persuade the North to return to the negotiating table," said an official at the Unification Ministry.

The Defense Ministry also said on Tuesday that it had proposed military talks with North Korea. The offer of general-level border talks a day after North Korea declared last Thursday its possession of atomic bombs.

"North Korea has not responded to the offer yet, but we are waiting for the North's positive response," a ministry official said. The proposal was seen as part of efforts to figure out North Korea's intentions behind its nuclear pronouncement.

The government, however, was accused of seeking hasty dialogue with North Korea as the international community is joining forces to press Pyongyang to drop its nuclear ambitions.

The Seoul government has been embarrassed by North Korea's bombshell nuclear statement because they have floated the rosy prospects for ending the nuclear standoff, saying North Korea was set to return to the stalled six-nation talks. Key officials had predicted the six-way talks could resume as early as next month.

President Roh Moo-hyun has led the campaign, saying last month that the mood is ripe for another round of six-way talks. He even warned the United States last year against a tough stance toward North Korea because its nuclear program is aimed at safeguarding the communist regime.

But the North's renewed nuclear brinkmanship comes as a shock to Seoul's much-touted calls for reconciliation with North Korea as a means to end the nuclear crisis, with critics calling for Seoul to reconsider its reconciliation stance.

Indicating his embarrassment, Roh has made no formal response to the North's declaration, just repeating the government must be prudent in handling with the nuclear issue.

Seoul's top security policymaker dismissed the North's nuclear claim, noting that it has yet to conduct a nuclear test, unlike other nuclear powers such as India and Pakistan.

"The government is still confident in its policy of reconciliation with the North and that the nuclear standoff could be resolved through dialogue," Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said.


LINK: http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20050215-083621-3128r