Tracking Number: 346637
Title: President Clinton and South Korean President Kim Young-sam have affirmed their support for a UN Security Council statement they believe sends a firm message to North Korea
to return to a path of dialogue regarding its suspected nuclear weapons program. WH Report. (940531)
Date: 19940531
Text:
WHITE HOUSE REPORT, TUESDAY, MAY 31
(North Korea) (470)
NEWS BRIEFING -- Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers discussed the following
topic:
CLINTON, SOUTH KOREAN LEADER BACK U.N. APPEAL TO NORTH KOREA President Clinton and South Korean President Kim Yong-sam, during a telephone conversation May 30, affirmed their support for a U.N. Security Council statement which they believe sends "a firm message" to North Korea "to return to a path of dialogue," Myers said.
The two leaders also discussed Kim's upcoming trip to Russia and Uzbekistan and Clinton's upcoming trip to Europe to participate in events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Allied campaign to liberate Europe, she said.
The Security Council issued an appeal to North Korea May 30 to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to monitor the discharge of fuel from a nuclear reactor. While the non-binding statement did not include any explicit threat of sanctions against North Korea for violating nuclear safeguards, diplomats reportedly said the measure would likely be the last the council will act on before considering sanctions if North Korea continues to unload fuel from the Yongbyon reactor without oversight by the IAEA.
Myers told questioners the United States has said there would be no obstacles to starting a third round of talks with North Korea, if that nation "first completed the March inspections and, second, allowed" the defueling "to take place in a way that did not break the continuity of safeguards."
The United States "always made clear," she added, "that if those two conditions were met, there would be no obstacles to resuming a third round (of U.S.-North Korean talks)....That second condition is now in question. The IAEA inspectors are still in North Korea. The IAEA will report to the Security Council tomorrow in more detail about its findings."
U.S. officials are "very concerned about the situation," she said. "And the IAEA will have to make a determination about whether the continuity of safeguards has been broken," Myers said.
"We are watching the situation very closely; we take it very seriously," she said.
Asked what the U.S. might do in the event North Korea has broken the continuity of safeguards, she said, "At that point, the question will go back to the Security Council, where we have said we will work with the other members; we expect to take this step by step....The ball is now in North Korea's court....We are urging them diplomatically...to not allow the continuity of safeguards to be broken."
Regarding China's policy, she told questioners China has been pressing North Korea "to follow through with inspections, and, now, to guarantee that the continuity of safeguards is not broken....North Korea will find that it is isolated in the world community."
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File Identification: 05/31/94, POL204; 05/31/94, AEF214; 05/31/94, EPF201; 05/31/94, EUR201; 05/31/94, LEF215; 05/31/94, NEA202
Product Name: Wireless File
Product Code: WF
Keywords: CLINTON, BILL/Foreign Relations: East Asia & Pacific; KOREA (SOUTH)-US RELATIONS; KIM YONG-SAM; KOREA (SOUTH)-RUSSIA RELATIONS; KOREA (NORTH)-US RELATIONS; KOREA (NORTH)/Defense & Military; MILITARY CAPABILITIES; NUCLEAR
WEAPO
Thematic Codes: 1EA; 1AC; 1UN
Target Areas: AF; AR; EA; EU; NE
PDQ Text Link: 346637
USIA Notes: *94053104.POL
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