South Korea, U.S. Seek To Mend Their Strained Ties
By GORDON FAIRCLOUGH
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 7, 2005; Page A13
SEOUL, South Korea -- When South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun meets President Bush in Washington on Friday, the two leaders will grapple with how to disarm North Korea while also trying to mend their own unusually strained relations.
A critical question facing Messrs. Bush and Roh is when and under what circumstances they will give up on stalled multinational talks aimed at curbing North Korea's atomic ambitions, and what options they will pursue next.
Negotiations with North Korea have been at a standstill for nearly a year. In February, Pyongyang declared its possession of atomic weapons. It has since said it is reprocessing more spent nuclear fuel to enlarge its arsenal. The U.S. has told allies it is worried North Korea could be moving toward its first nuclear-weapons test.
Bush administration officials met yesterday for the second time in a month with North Korean diplomats in New York at Pyongyang's request, U.S. officials said. The officials said the intention of the meeting was to seek ways to restart the six-party talks, but they declined to say whether any progress had been made.
Meanwhile, amid the diplomatic maneuvering, U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, moved quickly to counter remarks made by a senior U.S. defense official Sunday that the U.S. could decide within weeks to seek U.N. action against North Korea through the Security Council. "There have been no decisions with respect to that at all," Mr. Rumsfeld said yesterday.
Ties between Washington and Seoul have frayed amid disagreements over how to reshape their 50-year-old military alliance and deal with North Korea.
Some analysts say the public airing of differences between the two capitals is undermining efforts to get North Korea back to the bargaining table and could make it more difficult to persuade Pyongyang to give up weapons even if talks resume.
South Korea, fearful of conflict or a costly collapse of the regime in the North, has been reluctant to consider economic sanctions or other coercive measures against Pyongyang that could spark instability.
But many in the U.S., focused on the danger posed by North Korea's nuclear programs and its ability to export weapons of mass destruction, see pressure tactics as essential to push the North Koreans to abandon their atomic ambitions.
In a speech late last year in Los Angeles, Mr. Roh, while saying that Seoul wouldn't tolerate a nuclear North Korea, said the desire for atomic weapons by North Koreans is "understandable considering the environment they live in." He ruled out military action and said moves to isolate the North would be undesirable.
In another speech, Mr. Roh said he couldn't understand Koreans who were too "pro-American." His government also suspended joint planning with the U.S. military on how to respond to instability in the North. After an outcry from the Defense Department, Seoul agreed to resume the planning.
Statements by Mr. Roh that have "tilted decisively" toward North Korean positions have "undermined U.S. interests and even the talks themselves," by encouraging Pyongyang to dig in its heels, said Larry Niksch, a policy analyst at the Congressional Research Service in Washington.
One U.S. official, however, played down the impact of the differences. "We sit in two very different places," the official said. "But that doesn't mean these two leaders can't compose a joint policy" to deal with a common problem.
South Korean officials recently have started taking a tougher rhetorical line, warning North Korea against testing a nuclear weapon and saying that if diplomacy fails, Seoul would be forced to consider unspecified "other options." The tough talk has its limits. "Of course, we would be among the last to favor pressure tactics. But if we have to do it, we'll do it," a South Korean official said.
U.S. officials have been considering measures to take if talks remain at a standstill, including seeking U.N. penalties against North Korea. Washington also is looking to step up economic pressure on Pyongyang by moving more aggressively to interdict shipments of arms, drugs, counterfeit currency and fake cigarettes and pharmaceuticals.
Last month, the Defense Department withdrew a team in North Korea that was searching for remains of U.S. soldiers killed in the Korean War. "As the nuclear situation deteriorates, we don't want to have people on the ground there," said a U.S. official. "We can't think about other options in that situation. Those guys were potential hostages." |
