Kissinger Backs Seoul's Push on NK Issue
2003-05-14
2003-05-14
NEW YORK - Henry Kissinger, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who helped end the Vietnam War, has given his full support to President Roh Moo-hyun's efforts to peacefully resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis.
Making courtesy call on Roh, who is on his maiden trip here, Kissinger said Monday he was in Korea during the 1950-1953 Korean War and saw the devastation it caused the nation. He said he understands why Koreans object to the use of force against North Korea and want a peaceful resolution.
The Bush administration has repeatedly vowed to bring a peaceful end to the nuclear standoff but has not ruled out military force as a last alternative.
According to Ban Ki-moon, Roh's foreign affairs advisor who was on hand at the meeting, the former U.S. secretary of state advocated a multilateral approach to the North Korea issue, requiring the participation of not only South Korea but also Japan and Russia.
In response, Roh said he also subscribes to the multilateral approach in principle but will accept any dialogue format that allows negotiations to get underway again.
The Roh administration initially pushed for a six-way format but consented to the holding of three-way talks involving North Korea, the United States and China in Beijing last month.
Regarding the brinksmanship tactics employed by Pyongyang, Kissinger said the North seems to be trying to estrange Seoul from Washington and stressed the importance of close coordination between the two allies.
Roh agreed, adding that any “North Korean attempt to drive the wedge into the two allies' relations is bound to fail.”
Ban quoted Kissinger as saying that the nuclear crisis should be dealt with patiently but the U.S. and South Korea should not tolerate the Stalinist country beginning to reprocess spent fuel rods to extract plutonium, the key ingredient for building nuclear bombs.
Pyongyang reportedly told a U.S. envoy during the Beijing meeting that it had started to process the rods but the U.S. has not yet confirmed this. The U.S. estimates that Pyongyang already possesses a couple of crude nuclear bombs and could have as many as six within the next half year if reprocessing got into full swing.
Kissinger paid visit to Roh because he couldn't attend a dinner to be hosted by the Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington on Wednesday (May 14).
Source : www.korea.net
