[USFK Forums] Seoul's new faces to inject fresh air into stalled nuclear talks

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Seoul's new faces to inject fresh air into stalled nuclear talks

By Lee Chi-dong
2006/02/15 11:24

SEOUL, Feb. 15 (Yonhap) -- Armed with a new line-up for its nuclear negotiation team, South Korea is flexing its muscles to reinvigorate the moribund six-way talks on North Korea's nuclear program.

Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon ratcheted up his rhetoric against North Korea during his press briefing on Tuesday, urging the reclusive nation to take concrete action to dispel international suspicions on its illicit activities.

At the same time, Ban placed high hopes on the fresh blood injected into the elite squad handling Seoul's policy towards the U.S. and its strategy on the North Korean nuclear issue.

"Related countries were continuing joint works to resume the six-way talks through diplomatic channels," Ban said.

With the appointment of South Korea's new nuclear negotiators, the diplomatic drive is expected to gain momentum, he added.

Ban's rosy prospects came after his country replaced Kim Sook with Cho Tae-yong as head of the Foreign Ministry's North American affairs bureau last week.

Cho had led the ministry's task force on the North Korean nuclear issue for two years, doubling as deputy head of Seoul's delegation to the six-party talks.

Presidential advisor Lee Yong-joon was brought in to take Cho's previous position.

The reshuffle is sill underway, as the government has yet to name the chief nuclear delegate, a post that has remained vacant since Song Min-soon was promoted in January to chief presidential secretary for security policy.

Song's promotion was apparently in recognition of his role in producing the agreement at the end of the six-party talks last September, in which North Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear program in return for security guarantees and economic aid.

The other participants in the Beijing-based discussions are the U.S., China, Russia, and Japan.

But the promotion was regarded as quite unusual as Song, who was deputy foreign minister, rose two notches to the minister-level position, a rare move in the government's seniority-oriented hierarchy.

Officials in Seoul are guarded about who will succeed Song as leader of the nuclear delegation.

"As you know, the government uses stricter criteria to appoint high-level officials nowadays," Director-general Cho Tae-yong said. "We expect new chief nuclear delegates to be appointed soon."
The new chief delegate is expected to face as daunting a task as his or her predecessor, with the nuclear negotiations remaining deadlocked for months.

At the center of the latest dispute is the U.S. financial restrictions on North Korea, which is suspected of producing fake U.S. dollars as well as trading narcotics and weapons of mass destruction.

Just a day after the hard-won agreement reached Sept. 19 at the six-way talks, Washington slapped sanctions on a Macau-based bank, accusing it of helping Pyongyang's illegal activities. North Korea has threatened it will not return to the talks unless the sanctions are lifted.

"I feel like I have a more difficult assignment," said Lee Yong-joon, newly appointed head of the Foreign Ministry's task force on the North Korean nuclear issue.

In fact, once the talks are resumed, the new nuclear negotiation team will have to work to set the sequencing for the implementation of the agreement, which would be even harder than producing the deal criticized by some for its ambiguous wording.

Despite such difficulties, analysts say, the new faces are likely to help refresh the mood of the talks.

They also expect a delicate shift in Seoul's strategy on its alliance with Washington to resolve the North Korean nuclear dispute and bring a permanent peace regime to the Korean Peninsula.

"In handling North American affairs, Cho will be able to use his knowledge and specialization on the nuclear issue acquired over the past two years," said Kim Il-young, professor of political science at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul.

Cho also said that this year's key issue in the Seoul-Washington alliance will be the North Korea nuclear crisis.

He may feel less burdened to some extent because such controversial issues as the relocation of U.S. troops and their "strategic flexibility" have been addressed.

lcd@yna.co.kr
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