U.S. Congress can support N.Korea policy changes – Leach

By Jon Herskovitz

SEOUL (Reuters) – The Bush administration can find support
in Congress for major U.S. policy changes toward North Korea if
a deal is struck on dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons
program, a U.S. congressman said on Sunday.

Jim Leach, a Republican who heads the House Subcommittee on
East Asian and Pacific Affairs, also said upon returning from a
trip to North Korea that Pyongyang seemed committed to
returning to six-party nuclear talks scheduled for next week in
Beijing.

Leach said Congress would have to approve new policies
toward North Korea and it was in Pyongyang’s interest to strike
a deal now because of the special relations the
Republican-controlled Congress has with President George W.
Bush, a Republican.

Leach did not mention any specific measures, but
Congressional approval would be necessary for certain demands
from North Korea such as establishing diplomatic ties, striking
a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War and
dispatching U.S. economic aid.

“This administration’s tough policies had certain
advantages in dealing with this Congress on the huge changes in
law that would be necessary if there were a change of policies
for North Korea,” Leach told a press conference.

Leach traveled to North Korea for four days last week with
Tom Lantos, the ranking Democrat on the House International
Relations Committee.

Talks between the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the
United States had been scheduled to resume in the week of
August 29 but North Korea blamed joint South Korea-U.S.
military drills and the U.S. appointment of a monitor on its
human rights as the reasons for its decision to postpone its
return.

Leach said that now was not the time for foot dragging.

“We stressed that delay was not in anybody’s interest,
either procedurally or substantively,” Leach said.

Leach said Pyongyang officials expressed “their strong
commitment” to the U.S. congressman to return to the talks in
the week of September 12.

During their visit, Lantos and Leach held talks with Vice
Foreign Minister Kim, Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun, Vice
President of the Supreme People’s Assembly Kim Song-dae and
General Li Chan-bok of the Korean People’s Army.

Leach also said North Korea wanted to press for a right to
a peaceful nuclear program, which was a key stumbling block in
the previous session of nuclear talks that took place for 13
days in late July and early August.

Leach said Congress had concerns about allowing North Korea
to have a peaceful nuclear program after Pyongyang left the
nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in January 2003, expelled
International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors from its country
in December 2002, and was seen by Washington as violating a
1994 agreement to freeze its nuclear programs.

“These issues of trust are very large and will take some
time to unfold,” Leach said.