US, S Korea want peace

2003-05-06 11:02

Seoul - South Korea and the United States will reiterate their determination to solve the North Korean nuclear stand-off peacefully at next week's summit, officials said here on Wednesday.

President Roh Moo-Hyun, who took office in early February, is scheduled to hold his first meeting with his US counterpart George W Bush on Wednesday next week in Washington.

"(The two leaders) will reaffirm the principle that the North Korean nuclear issue must be resolved peacefully and joinly present measures to do so," the presidential Blue House said in a press statement.

"(South Korea) will also seek US support to its policy for peace and prosperity (with North Korea)," it said, without giving details.

A senior official said the two leaders would also reaffirm that North Korea's posession of nuclear weapons would not be tolerated, Yonhap news agency reported.

Ra Jong-Yil, Roh's senior advisor for national security, said the United States and South Korea were mulling their options after North Korea made what Pyongyang termed a "bold proposal" in three-way talks last month.

At the talks with the United States and China in Beijing, North Korea offered to ditch its nuclear and missile programmes in return for economic and diplomatic benefits, according to US accounts.

US officials said the suggestion contained nothing new and has so far declined to respond.

"The United States is still studying the next step it should take and there will be consultations with us (on the next step)," Ra told journalists.

Following the summit, South Korea, the United States and Japan will meet to discuss details on how to respond to the North's proposal, he said.

Ra refused to discuss what form a counter-proposal may take, but it was widely speculated that the North will be urged to take the first step and scrap its nuclear programme.

Park Jin, a lawmaker of the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) who returned here Sunday from a trip to Washington, said the United States appeared to be in no rush to respond to the North's proposal.

"The United States will come up with a road map (for resolving the nuclear issue) after it learns from President Roh about his view concerning the North and its nuclear stand-off and US-South Korea alliance," Park said.

He said US officials were "embarrassed" by Roh's statements that South Korea will not insist on taking part in the three-way talks to avoid complicating the situation.

North Korea has threatened to scuttle all nuclear talks unless the United States responded positively to its offer to dismantle its nuclear programme in exchange for economic and diplomatic payoffs.

"If the US does not positively respond to the DPRK's (North Korea's) bold proposal, it will be held accountable for scuttling all efforts for dialogue and seriously straining the situation," the ruling Workers Party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said on Monday.

Since the crisis erupted in October, the United States has insisted that North Korea must verifiably end both its nuclear programs based on plutonium and enriched uranium.

United States Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Monday that was still the case.

"We do not want to see North Korea have a nuclear capability," said Powell. "We believe that is also the opinion of all of North Korea's neighbours."

A White House spokesperson discounted a report which said the main focus of Washington policy had shifted from stopping Pyongyang developing nuclear weapons to stopping their export.

"Our position remains the same, that the United States, as well as the international community, is concerned about North Korea possessing nuclear weapons and transferring nuclear material to others," he said.

- AFX