[USFK Forums] Seoul swipes at Washington's North Korea hardliners [Reuters]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Thursday, January 26, 2006

Seoul swipes at Washington's North Korea hardliners

By Jack KimWed Jan 25, 1:47 AM ET

Seoul (Reuters) - South Korea's president swiped on Wednesday at U.S. hardliners rooting for the collapse of the North Korean government, but said Seoul and Washington saw eye to eye on how to end the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

"The South Korean government does not agree with certain opinions in the United States, which apparently are trying to pressure North Korea by raising issues about its regime and often seem to be looking for its collapse," President Roh Moo-hyun told a news conference.

Six-country talks aimed at ending the isolated communist state's nuclear arms program in return for aid, security assurances and improved diplomatic ties have hit a snag since the last round was held in November.

Pyongyang has demanded the suspension of a U.S. crackdown on several firms Washington suspects of involvement in illicit financial activities by the North as a condition for its return to the negotiating table.

U.S. Treasury officials briefed South Korean officials this week about U.S. suspicions of the North's illegal activity.

Roh said there was no difference in view between South Korea and the United States on resolving the North Korean problem. However, he declined to comment directly on allegations that Pyongyang is behind the counterfeiting of U.S. dollars, money laundering and drug trafficking, which Washington believes have helped fund the North's nuclear weapons programs.

"I believe officials should look carefully at whether (the counterfeit) issue has ties to the effort to resolve the nuclear issue and if there is an intent to pressure the North Korean government, and check the veracity and coordinate views."

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon also sought to distance Seoul from the stand-off between Washington and Pyongyang on Tuesday, declining to say at a news conference if South Korea believed the charges laid out by the United States.

North Korea, known officially as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), on Wednesday reiterated its complaints about the financial crackdown.

"There can be no smooth and fair talks so long as the U.S. pursues a sinister aim to strangulate the people of the DPRK through sanctions and bring down their system, refusing to co-exist with the latter and trust it," the North's official KCNA news agency said in a commentary.

WAR-TIME COMMAND

South Korea and the United States have not always agreed on the best way to deal with the unpredictable North. In recent months, South Korea has increased its economic aid and cooperation with North Korea, and on Wednesday Roh said he wanted to prepare for negotiations leading to a peace regime on the peninsula.

South and North Korea remain technically at war under a truce signed by the North, the United States and China that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

The president also said South Korea would work with Washington to complete this year a measure allowing Seoul to take over war-time command of its troops from the U.S. military.

It was apparently the first time Seoul had put a timetable on a command switch, which Washington has said it is ready to consider, though Roh did say it may take longer to complete.

South Korea has some 690,000 troops, a large force meant to deter North Korea, whose military is over one million strong. But the U.S. military, which has 30,000 troops in the South, would have wartime control through a Combined Forces Command set up after the Korean War.


(Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz, Yoo Choonsik and Lee Jin-joo)



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