S.Korea to Offer Compromise to End Nuclear Dispute

Posted on Sun, Jan. 05, 2003 Reuters www.centredaily.com

SEOUL - A South Korean delegation presents its plan to defuse the North Korean nuclear crisis to U.S. and Japanese officials in Washington on Monday as world diplomatic initiatives gather momentum.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, also meets on Monday when it is expected to give the communist North the chance to change its mind and abandon what the United States believes is a nuclear weapons program.

Tension has risen since North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors and fired up a nuclear reactor mothballed under a 1994 deal in which it had agreed to end such work in exchange for fuel oil from the United States and its allies.

Washington cut off oil supplies to North Korea late last year after it said Pyongyang had admitted to a covert nuclear program.

In Washington on Monday, a regular meeting of the Trilateral Coordination and Oversight Group, with delegates from South Korea, Japan and the United States, is to hear Seoul's plan.

This is believed to center on a U.S. guarantee of North Korea's security in return for Pyongyang scrapping its weapons program.

"The Seoul government's approach to the North Korean nuclear issue is solving it in a peaceful way and through diplomacy," Kim Euy-tack, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, told Reuters.

"Our mediation plans will be discussed at the talks with the United States and Japan in Washington."

The worsening war of words between the United States and North Korea prompted South Korea to send a top presidential security aide to Washington.

Yim Sung-joon, presidential secretary for foreign affairs and security, would travel to the U.S. capital on Tuesday to discuss the crisis with his counterpart, Condoleezza Rice, and other top U.S. officials, officials in Seoul said. Yim would then visit Tokyo on Friday and Saturday.

South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hang-kyung held weekend talks in Moscow with senior Russian officials, including the Foreign Ministry's top Asia expert, Alexander Losyukov.

"Russia's cooperation to solve this problem peacefully is essential. The Russians said they would try their best to use their channel to North Korea," Kim said on Sunday.

Also joining diplomatic efforts to cool tensions is Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who begins a four-day visit to Russia on Thursday, coinciding with a visit to East Asia by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly.

The Korea Times said on Monday an "atmosphere conducive to opening talks" to resolve the crisis had been created, with Seoul gearing up to play a bridging role and North Korea appearing ready to accept a third country's mediation.

But North Korea's KCNA news agency on Sunday appeared adamant.

"The nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula is an issue that should be settled through (North Korea)-U.S. dialogue, as it is a product of the U.S. hostile policy toward (North Korea)."