US, S.Korea prod North to return to nuclear talks

By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and South Korea on
Thursday urged North Korea to return promptly to stalled
nuclear disarmament talks as the two allies took steps to
bolster their 50-year-old security alliance.

The United States again rejected North Korea’s reason for
staying away from the nuclear talks and said Washington’s
financial crackdown on Pyongyang over suspected counterfeiting,
money laundering and drug trafficking was a separate issue.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Korean
Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon used the launch of a new bilateral
strategic dialogue to press North Korea to end its boycott of
six-party nuclear talks.

“We both urge the North Koreans to come back to the talks
without conditions because North Korea also is being told by
the international community that it has to be a Korean
Peninsula that is free of nuclear weapons and that North Korea
must dismantle its nuclear programs,” Rice said.

Rice and Ban issued a joint statement saying North Korea
“must return promptly to the six-party talks and the focus of
future discussions in Beijing must be on steps to implement the
September 19 Joint Statement.”

Last September South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the
United States won the North’s agreement in principle to scrap
its nuclear arms in exchange for aid and security guarantees.
Talks have stalled since the six states last met in November.

Ban’s meeting with Rice was the latest of a flurry of
efforts to restart the talks, which included a meeting on
Wednesday in Beijing among U.S. envoy Christopher Hill, North
Korean negotiator Kim Kye-gwan and Chinese envoy Wu Dawei.

STRATEGIC CONSULTATION

State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters
that Hill “sent a strong, clear message” that Washington wanted
Pyongyang to return to the table without conditions and without
linking the financial clamp-down to the nuclear issue.

“The United States, as any country would, has and is going
to continue to take steps to prevent illegal activities that
may affect us or any other country, whether that’s involvement
in drug trafficking or money laundering or counterfeiting,”
McCormack said, summarizing Hill’s message to Kim Kye-gwan.

Ban said he and Rice were analyzing North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il’s recent trip to China, where he reportedly told
Chinese leaders he would help restart the nuclear talks.

“We take note (that) Chairman Kim Jong-il said that he
would reaffirm the commitment to denuclearize the Korean
Peninsula,” Ban said.

Rice and Ban launched the Strategic Consultation for Allied
Partnership, a project agreed at a bilateral summit last
November to modernize and strengthen a security alliance dating
back to the 1950-53 Korean War.

The allies hoped to forge a multilateral security mechanism
for Northeast Asia and vowed to work to promote democracy,
fight terrorism, and prevent the proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction, said a statement issued after the talks.

The statement said South Korea “respects the necessity for
strategic flexibility of the U.S. Forces in the ROK (Republic
of Korea)” — Washington’s desire to be able to use its more
than 30,000 troops in the South for regional contingencies.

Addressing South Korean wariness about provoking neighbors
such as China, the statement added: “The U.S. respects the ROK
position that it shall not be involved in a regional conflict
in Northeast Asia against the will of the Korean people.”