South Korean Presidential Aid Proposes Four-Nation Summit on Nuclear Issue

Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap

[Yonhap headline: "Roh Aide Suggests Four-way Summit On N. Korean Nuclear Standoff"]

SEOUL, April 23 (Yonhap) – A confidant of President Roh Moo-hyun [No Mu-hyo'n] on Monday proposed a summit by the two Koreas, the United States and China to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue, separately from ongoing six-party disarmament negotiations.

“There is a need to create the framework of four-nation talks to establish a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, while maintaining the six-party talks,” Yi Hae-ch’an [Lee Hae-chan], a special presidential adviser on political affairs, told a security forum at the National Assembly.

“It could create a framework of the leaders of the four countries meeting to determine principles, which will be implemented during their ministerial meetings. Also, they could discuss measures in ministerial talks, and their leaders could later meet and approve them,” he said.

The four countries are participants in the six-party talks aimed at stripping North Korea of its nuclear weapons programmes. The nuclear talks, which also include Russia and Japan, produced a landmark pact in February, under which the North agreed to begin dismantling its nuclear weapons programmes in return for aid.

The denuclearization procedures have been stalemated amid a banking dispute surrounding US$25 million in North Korean assets in a Macau bank blacklisted by the US The North missed an April 14 deadline to shut down its only operating nuclear plant in Yongbyon.

“The four nations should take a more powerful initiative” in resolving the nuclear dispute, Lee said, adding that will be “more efficient” to facilitate peace in the region.

Lee, a five-time incumbent lawmaker who served as President Roh’s prime minister, visited North Korea in March amid speculation that he was attempting to arrange an inter-Korean summit.

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