[USFK Forums] Washington seeking various ways to engaged N. Korea: S.Korean officials

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Friday, March 17, 2006

Washington seeking various ways to engage North Korea: SKorean official

By Bo-Mi Lim
ASSOCIATED PRESS
9:44 p.m. March 15, 2006

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea's new point man on North Korea said Thursday the United States is stepping up engagement with Pyongyang even as it cracks down on the North's alleged money laundering and poor human rights record.

The comments, by Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, come as disarmament talks on ending the North's nuclear program remain stalled by a dispute between Pyongyang and Washington over U.S. financial restrictions against the communist regime for alleged counterfeiting and money laundering.

“The United States now has various thoughts when looking at North Korea. It wants to look at the North from a little wider perspective,” Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok told a forum in Seoul. “This can, from some aspects, be a source of challenges, but also a source of opportunity.” Lee did not elaborate.

He also stressed Thursday that he believes the United States remains committed to solving the North Korea nuclear issue.

The U.S. has also increased pressure on the North for its poor human rights record, approving a law calling for improvements and designating a special envoy to oversee the issue.

Resolving the nuclear issue is “a complicated process,” but South Korea “cannot give up on the six-party talks,” Lee said, referring to the disarmament talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

“When the six-party talks succeed ... there can be a separate forum for discussions on establishing a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula,” Lee said.

The two Koreas remain technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.

Negotiators to the nuclear talks reached a breakthrough agreement in September where the North agreed to give up its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security guarantees, but no progress has since been made on implementing the agreement.

North Korea has stayed away from the negotiating table since November, demanding that Washington lift financial restrictions imposed on a Macau bank and North Korean companies for alleged complicity in counterfeiting and money laundering.

Washington says the financial actions are separate from the nuclear talks, and the two sides failed to move past the impasse in a rare high-level contact between North Korean and U.S. officials this month in New York.


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