US Preparing New Plan on NK Issue: FM
2003-09-29
Foreign Affairs-Trade Minister Yoon Young-kwan said in New York on Saturday that the United States is preparing a detailed proposal to address North Korea's security concerns and this proposal will likely be presented to Pyongyang during the second round of six-way talks expected in November.
“I think that Washington is changing,” Yoon was quoted as saying.
He added that Pyongyang should give up its nuclear weapons program but this won't be a precondition for further dialogue.
Yoon's show of confidence about the outlook for a resolution of the North Korean issue comes at a time when the Bush administration is asking Seoul to send a sizable contingent of troops to help out with its troubled post-war reconstruction efforts in Iraq.
The U.S. is showing signs of accommodating Seoul's requests in sensitive areas such as the U.S. plan to relocate its troops in South Korea and, according to U.S. watchers, it remains to be seen how Washington will address Seoul's call for a softer approach to Pyongyang in the context of its troubled operations in Iraq.
Yoon, who was on a week-long visit to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York, met with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and other leading diplomats from the nations involved in an international effort to peacefully resolve the North's nuclear challenge. He returned home on Sunday.
In connection, representatives from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan are scheduled to hold an informal working-level meeting in Tokyo for three days starting today, which marks the first three-way confab after the first round of six-way talks in Beijing.
The three countries are expected to fine-tune their joint proposal which comprises a road-map on how to induce the North to give up its nuclear weapons program through the provision of incentives ahead of the second round talks that will also involve China and Russia.
Seoul officials, however, declined to comment on what exactly comprises the U.S. proposal. At the Beijing talks in August, the North threatened to boycott future talks, saying the first round was “useless.”
The North demands that Washington sign a non-aggression treaty with Pyongyang, with the U.S. refusing, saying the Stalinist country should dismantle its nuclear weapons program first. The U.S., however, is hinting that it may provide a less binding form of guarantee not to attack the North.
Source : www.korea.net
