Seoul Welcomes NK's Hint to Accept US Proposal
2003-10-27
South Korea on Saturday (Oct. 25) welcomed North Korea's expression of willingness to consider U.S. President George W. Bush's earlier offer of a multilateral written security guarantee to end the nuclear tension on the Korean Peninsula.
"I find it encouraging that the North is not insisting on a (bilateral) nonaggression pact (with the U.S.) only," said Foreign Affairs-Trade Minister Yoon Young-kwan.
Ban Ki-moon, presidential adviser for foreign policy, said, "It is a positive development ahead of six-party talks in a follow-up to the talks in August."
"I am not overtly optimistic, expect a positive outcome out of China's consultations with North Korea," he said.
Earlier last week, Bush proposed that the six countries with vested interests in the communist country offer written assurances that North Korea will not be attacked if it vows to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
The next day North Korea rejected the offer, saying that it would comply with nothing less than a formal nonaggression treaty from the United States.
In a turnaround from its earlier stance, North Korea said it was willing to consider United States' latest offer to provide a written security guarantee signed jointly with other countries.
"We are ready to consider Bush's remarks on the written assurances of non-aggression if they are based on the intention to coexist with the (North) and offer 'simultaneous actions'," said a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman through a statement carried by the official [North] Korea Central News Agency (KCNA).
The statement came four days before a planned visit of a top Chinese delegation to the isolated country. The announcement was received with careful welcome by South Korean and U.S. governments.
However the statement said it was too early to tell whether the North it would return to the six-way talks aimed at resolving the nuclear standoff. It added close contact with the U.S. was already taking place via the North's United Nations office in New York.
Still, the abrupt change of mind from Pyongyang, which only last week called President's Bush's offer on multilateral security guarantee "laughable," greatly raised hopes for a resolution of crisis surrounding the North's nuclear programs.
North Korea has said "simultaneous action" means the U.S. must be willing to provide economic and humanitarian aid and eventually to forge diplomatic ties. In return it said the North is willing to give up its nuclear ambitions and allow inspections.
The U.S. has so far remained negative on the simultaneous action idea, insisting Pyongyang make concessions on nukes first.
Seoul officials said Pyongyang's announcement does not mean it has given up the insistence on a bilateral, non-aggression pact with the U.S., but still remarked the situation's turning for the better.
Jimmy Orr, a White House spokesman, said the U.S. "was looking at the message, and we hope North Korea will return to the Beijing six-party talks."
President Bush, during the summit meeting of Pacific Rim leaders in Bangkok last week, proposed that South Korea, the U.S., Russia, Japan and China offer a joint paper assuring the North will not be attacked on condition it promises to dismantle its nuclear program.
Source : www.korea.net
