Soros blames Bush for N Korea

2006-10-16 11:58

Tokyo - Billionaire philanthropist George Soros on Monday pointed the finger at US President George W Bush for the North Korea crisis, saying his hard line had led to the communist state's nuclear test.

Soros, a Hungarian-born US financier who has used his fortune to promote democracy and human rights worldwide, said he supported former South Korean president Kim Dae-Jung's "sunshine" policy of trying to engage Pyongyang.

"I was a great supporter of Kim Dae-Jung's sunshine policy. President Bush rejected that policy," Soros told a news conference in Tokyo, where he is promoting one of his books.

Former US secretary of state "Colin Powell endorsed it but President Bush denounced it. That was the beginning of the current deterioration," Soros said.

Security guarantees

He called on Washington to ease North Korean fears that it would be attacked.

"If you have security guarantees, the regime would have to soften," Soros said.

North Korea last week said it had exploded its first atom bomb in response to US hostility. Bush branded Pyongyang part of an "axis of evil" along with Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Iran.

The communist state agreed last year in general terms to give up its nuclear arsenal in exchange for security guarantees and aid. But it walked out of six-nation talks two months later in protest at US financial sanctions against a Pyongyang-linked bank.

"I think we need to be open," Soros said.

"If North Korea returns to the negotiating table, to offer some inducements for it to abandon its nuclear programme and security guarantees would be appropriate and more effective in softening the regime than anything else," he said.

Sanctions

But Soros said he supported Saturday's UN resolution which slapped sanctions on North Korea and Japan's own decision to impose a unilateral ban on North Korean imports.

"Regarding the nuclear test I think that the response of Japan and the United Nations is the appropriate one," he said.

"Imposing an embargo is necessary to contain the North Korean threat."

- AFP