Posted on 02/11/2005 5:49:27 AM PST by presidio9
North Korea has demanded bilateral talks with the United States to defuse the tension created by its announcement that it is a nuclear power, the communist state's U.N. envoy said in a South Korean newspaper Friday.
Han Sung Ryol, a senior diplomat from the U.N. delegation in New York, was the first North Korean official to speak to outside news media since Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry defied the United States and its allies by declaring Thursday it has nuclear weapons.
In the announcement — its first public disclosure that it has the weapons — North Korea said its arsenal is a deterrent against a U.S. invasion, and it does not intend to join six-nation disarmament talks anytime soon. The weapons claim could not be independently verified.
"We will return to the six-nation talks when we see a reason to do so and the conditions are ripe," Han told Seoul's Hankyoreh newspaper in an interview published Friday. "If the United States moves to have direct dialogue with us, we can take that as a signal that the United States is changing its hostile policy toward us."
Han's suggestion came as the 2-year-old standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons programs plummeted to a new low.
North Korea sees its nuclear programs as a way of ensuring the survival of leader Kim Jong Il's regime. In return for giving up its nuclear ambitions, it seeks massive aid, diplomatic recognition, an end to economic sanctions, and a nonaggression treaty with the United States.
North Korea's long-running strategy has been to try to engage the United States in bilateral talks, believing such meetings would boost the isolated country's international status and help it win bigger concessions.
In the current six-nation talks, North Korea has increasingly found itself surrounded by countries, including allies China and Russia, who are critical of its nuclear ambitions. Since 2003, the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia have held three rounds of talks in Beijing, but no significant progress has been made.
The United States has refused to engage in bilateral talks.
Former President Clinton (news - web sites) forged a bilateral deal in 1994 obligating North Korea to freeze its nuclear activities in return for oil and other aid. But Bush administration officials say the old deal was a failure that should not be repeated because North Korea flouted it by running a secret uranium-enrichment program.
They champion a new six-nation multilateral deal that could bind the North with commitments to China and Russia. China's aid and trade keep North Korea's economy from collapsing.
When asked whether the North's announcement would cause friction with Beijing, Han said his country has "always made our decisions independently based on our own judgment and on our own national interest."
"We are not affected by outside countries' pressure, mediation and persuasion. In fact, we believe that China will help persuade the United States to abandon its hostile policy toward us," he said in the interview.
Governments around the world have expressed concern over North Korea's nuclear statement and urged it to return to talks. But North Korea says it will not do so as long as Washington maintains its "hostile" policy toward the North.
"The key is a change in the hostile U.S. policy toward the North," Han was quoted as saying. "We have no other option but to regard the United States' refusal to have direct dialogue with us as an intention not to recognize us and to eliminate our system."
Hopes for the resumption of talks rose after President Bush began his second term without using harsh words against the Stalinist regime. But Pyongyang said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's labeling of it last month as one of the "outposts of tyranny" was insult enough to scuttle the diplomatic process.
North Korea believed Bush's recent emphasis on spreading freedom and ending tyranny around the world "effectively targeted" the isolated state, Han said.
"Although Bush didn't mention our country by name, the context makes it clear that there is a strong connection with" the comments by Rice, he said.
South Korea (news - web sites) urged the United States and its allies to be calm following North Korea's sudden declaration, reminding them that blustering and brinksmanship are nothing new in Pyongyang's toolbox of diplomatic tactics.
It is important to remember that "North Korea has shown similar attitudes in times of crucial negotiations" in the past, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon as saying.
But South Korean officials also cautioned that North Korea could take further steps to raise tensions — such as shipping weapons materials to other countries with nuclear ambitions or even testing a bomb.
The North's announcement and decision to pull out of the talks was "a matter of grave concern," Ban told reporters in Washington, where he arrived on a previously scheduled trip to meet Rice.
In Seoul, Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-shik told members of the ruling Uri party that "the North's move appears to be aimed at improving its negotiating power."
But he warned "the problem could get very serious if North Korea takes additional actions," Uri Party spokesman Lim Jong-suk said.
South Korea's take on North Korea's announcement reflects its decades-long experience in dealing with North Korean officials, who pepper their negotiating rhetoric with shouts, threats and dire warnings of imminent clashes.
Since the nuclear crisis erupted in late 2002, North Korea has steadily increased the stakes. It first removed U.N. seals on its mothballed nuclear facilities, expelled the last U.N. nuclear monitors and quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It later said it completed reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods to extract weapons-grade plutonium.
That might've worked on Kerry.
This was Kerry and the Democrat position during the campaign. Will they rally to North Korea's side and support bilateral talks?
Umm I think the standard, "We don't respond well to threats" line is the way to go.
They already have nukes. There's not much more to talk about.
Reprising the "Reagan sound-check" would be a good response.
I think lil Kim is getting upset that he isn't getting any attention. Maybe if he takes one of those puppies out to an atoll and detonate it, it would garner some attention.
That was about three rounds of antics like this ago. Now we just want to kill all your leaders and plow your capital with salt.
Has Carter volunteered his services to mediate yet?
Dealing with the DPRK is akin to dealing with a dope additcted teeneager. They do things that alienate themselves in a bid for attention from the very people from whom they do not want a loss of attention. There are times when I am convinced that the DPRK leadership is taking massive bong hits.
"Ooooh, Secwetawy Wice, come into my budwah, my wittul nubian sex kitten. Pewhaps you will see that it is usewess to resist my rakish manhood and my dawing bouffant...."
Too bad for Kim Jong Iw. He messing wif wong Secwetawy of State....
"Eat Kimber rounds, toad turd...."
Be Seeing You,
Chris
I wonder how much we do know about N. Korea's nuke capabilities. I would be interested to know how the 'international community' would react if we agreed to bilateral talks and either:
A: Announced that due to the threat to Los Angeles, we are withdrawing our troops and nuclear umbrella from Japan and S. Korea.
or
B: Announce that they made completely unreasonable demands, including transfer of additional nuclear and missile technology and tried to blackmail the US by threatening to nuke S. Korea, Japan and parts of the US. We could not meet their blackmail demands, and took their nuclear threat seriously so we have initiated pre-emptive tactical nuclear strikes on all known North Korean nuclear facilities.
What do y'all think? We know the EUrinals would wet their pants and the UN would huff and puff, but what would actually happen?
"I think lil Kim is getting upset that he isn't getting any attention. Maybe if he takes one of those puppies out to an atoll and detonate it, it would garner some attention."
Sure, only if the blast kills some sort of endangered fungus or seaweed; then the UN will issue scathing statements that, horrors, label Kim Jong-Il as "insenesitive." </sarcasm>
Isn't that so cute!
LMAO, great picture of Condi!
Since they refused talks yesterday, I suspect that this will end up as another waste of diplomatic effort. On the other hand, a diplomat with spare time on his hands is an ugly thing. They've gotta do something. Might as well be this.
Which makes more sense: Having two parties talk one on one or getting six parties in a room, each with slightly different agendas?
WOW.....NoKo dictating terms to the United States???? Sounds like another dictator who needs to be pulled out of his hidie-hole.....
It is no wonder that Japan is spending some more cash on military spending and is actively pursuing partnership with the US in ABM tech development. Japan has no interest in becoming the DPRK's test range for their newest toys. In the end, Kim shall continue to be ronery.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.