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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: NickSE who wrote (96237)	4/25/2003 6:10:08 PM
From: NickSE	Respond to of 281500

North Korea Puts Beijing in a Bind Bold Statements Ruffle Pyongyang's Chief Supporter washingtonpost.com BEIJING, April 24 -- China put a brave face on the end of the tense nuclear weapons talks that it hosted between North Korea and the United States, saying the discussions were a "good beginning" and that the two sides had agreed to meet again. But the North, by dispatching a relatively low-ranking representative to the first official contacts with the United States in six months, and by announcing there that it had nuclear weapons, delivered a diplomatic "slap in the face" to China, one Asian diplomat said. "This was supposed to be China's show," the diplomat said. "They arranged these talks and then the North Koreans show up and ruin the party." U.S. officials say that at the talks, a North Korean delegate declared his country has nuclear weapons and might export them or conduct a "physical demonstration." The statement caused an uproar in Washington; President Bush responded that the North was "back to the old blackmail game." A statement by a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, contained nothing about the country possessing nuclear weapons, but said that the ministry's negotiator at the talks, Li Gun, had "set out a new proposal for the settlement of the nuclear issue." The statement gave no details but said the proposal was ignored. The United States "repeated its old assertion that [North Korea] should 'scrap its nuclear programme before dialogue' without advancing any new proposal at the talks," the statement said. "And it persistently avoided the discussion on the essential issues to be discussed between both sides." Today, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing met with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly and Li Gun, who is deputy director of the American department at the North Korean foreign ministry. Kelly left for Seoul to brief government officials, and planned to do the same in Tokyo on Saturday. A Chinese official said Beijing did not understand North Korea's negotiating tactic. "The North has its own logic," he said, repeating a phrase that Chinese officials have used often recently in describing their long-standing ally. China provides 70 percent of the oil the North consumes and most of its rice and vegetables. While Chinese officials routinely express exasperation that the secretive government of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il refuses to undertake economic reforms, they have not cut off support. Unaccustomed to the diplomatic spotlight, China took a chance in organizing the talks and persuading officials from Washington and the North Korean capital Pyongyang to participate. Its diplomats congratulated themselves on China's new activism. "But this is a shock," said Shi Yinhong, an expert at international relations in Beijing. "China will never allow a nuclear weapon in North Korea." Shi and other experts have argued that China needs to consider dropping its strong support for North Korea to a more measured position. "A lot of us are telling the government that we, too, need to support regime change," said a Chinese analyst who has advised the government. "But the government is afraid to change." A senior South Korean Foreign Ministry official said China's position at the Beijing talks was awkward. Despite years of close ties, China is not trusted by North Korea, said the official, speaking in Seoul on condition that he not be identified. And while China does not want nuclear arms on the Korean peninsula, it is reluctant to get entwined in negotiations between the North and the United States, he added. "China doesn't want to be involved deeply, and they may not want to talk about substantive issues at this moment," he said. "They are a broker. They are very reserved. They want to be neutral between the United States and North Korea. China wants to be a balance between the United States and North Korea, as they were in the Four-Party Talks" in 1994. In those talks, attended by North and South Korea, China and the United States in a bid to resolve a similar nuclear crisis, South Korea consistently sided with the United States against North Korea, he acknowledged. But China, he said, also tended to support the American position in encouraging both parties to sign the agreement that ended the dispute for eight years. "China was neutral in theory. But in substance they stood with us," he said. "So North Korea was isolated." He speculated that North Korea did not want to repeat that situation this time. So it objected to Seoul's participation and held China at arm's length. Kelly flew Friday evening to Seoul, where he briefed South Korean officials. He remained publicly silent on the talks. But after meeting with Kelly, South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young Kwan said that a nuclear-armed North Korea would be "a major disturbance to peace on the Korean peninsula and to Northeast Asia." Japanese officials confirmed today that Kelly had been told by the North Koreans that they have nuclear weapons, but offered no further description of the dialogue. South Korea's financial markets plummeted today on apprehension over its northern neighbor's nuclear ambitions. The stock market dropped to a three-week low and foreign selling was heavy. South Korean finance officials expressed concern over the potential damage to the country's uncertain economy.