North Korea storms out meeting with South

By Jack Kim

PUSAN, South Korea (Reuters) – Efforts to bring North Korea
back to disarmament talks were in tatters on Thursday as
Pyongyang stormed out of a meeting with the South and a senior
U.S. diplomat left the region after a week of shuttle
diplomacy.

The deadlock threw the spotlight back on wrangling over a
U.N. resolution censuring North Korea for its July 5 missile
tests, which has pitted Japan against China and Russia.

Kyodo news agency reported that Japan was now prepared to
work on an alternative Security Council resolution sponsored by
Moscow and Beijing that urges North Korea to suspend its
nuclear programs but avoids the mandatory sanctions Tokyo has
sought.

“What is important is to adopt a binding resolution,” the
agency quoted an official as saying on condition of anonymity.

Tension between the two Koreas erupted at bilateral
ministerial talks in the South Korean city of Pusan, where the
Pyongyang’s delegation parried complaints about the missile
tests and focused instead on economic cooperation and requests
for aid.

“The South side will pay a price before the nation for
causing the collapse of the ministerial talks and bringing a
collapse of North-South relations that is unforeseeable now,”
the North Koreans said in a statement before leaving for the
airport, a day before the meeting was due to end.

The North Koreans demanded that the South stop joint
military drills with the United States due next year, saying it
was ready to protect South Korea with its 1.2-million-strong
armed forces.

That provoked an unusually biting reply from South Korean
Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok that echoed the rhetoric of
the years before Seoul’s determined policy of rapprochement.

“Who in the South asked you to protect our safety?” Lee
told Kwon on Tuesday, according to a South Korean official. “It
would help our safety for the North not to fire missiles or
develop a nuclear program.”

The South said the North could also forget about any more
aid until it returns to separate talks on its nuclear weapons.

‘CHINESE BAFFLED’

China and the United States have also urged the reclusive
communist state to return to six-country talks with South
Korea, Japan and Russia on winding up its nuclear arms program.

The negotiations stalled last November because Pyongyang
objected to U.S. financial sanctions based on accusations North
Korea counterfeited U.S. currency and trafficked drugs.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said a
“friendship delegation” sent to Pyongyang by Beijing, the
closest North Korea has to an ally, had failed to achieve a
breakthrough.

“So far they don’t seem to be interested in listening, much
less doing anything,” he told reporters before leaving Beijing
for Washington. “I think the Chinese are as baffled as we are.”

Hill said he was confident the United Nations would send a
“very strong, very clear message” to Pyongyang over the barrage
of missiles it test-fired last week.

However, Tokyo said it was still seeking a Security Council
vote on a resolution that would impose sanctions for the North
Korean missiles, which splashed into the sea off its west
coast.

“We can’t be twisted around by any attempts to buy time to
water down the strong resolve of the international community
over the firing of the missiles,” Chief Cabinet Secretary
Shinzo Abe said.

A Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said it was “a plus”
that China and Russia were now proposing a binding resolution
instead of a much weaker presidential statement from the
Security Council, but insisted Tokyo’s position had not
changed.

China’s Foreign Ministry repeated calls for a diplomatic
solution and urged members of the Security Council to craft a
“cautious and measured response.”

Earlier, it criticized Japan for “pouring oil on fire” for
raising the issue of a pre-emptive strike on North Korea after
the tests, warning it could seriously disrupt international
efforts to defuse the crisis.

“This practice is extremely irresponsible and
incomprehensible and it will only seriously disrupt
international diplomatic efforts and accelerate tensions in
Northeast Asia,” spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a statement.

Japanese leaders have said the country should debate
whether to obtain the capability to strike enemy bases when an
attack has “begun,” a concept that could include what defense
experts call an “imminent threat.”

(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley in Beijing, George
Nishiyama in Tokyo and Jon Herskovitz in Seoul)