U.S. supports Lee MB's plans to meet N. Korean leader Kim

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 (Yonhap) -- The United States Friday expressed support for
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's plans to meet with North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il over the North's denuclearization.

"We strongly support President Lee and the very clear path he set forward about
what is necessary to achieve peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," Deputy
Secretary of State James Steinberg told a forum here at the Woodrow Wilson
Center. "I am confident whatever form of engagement the South Korean government
achieves, we will do this through close cooperation."
Steinberg was responding to Lee's announcement earlier in the day that he is
ready to meet with Kim this year to help resolve the North Korean nuclear impasse
and other issues.
"We will be very supportive of the measures President Lee takes because we know
that we are pursuing the same goal," Steinberg said, noting the sides have a
common goal of the North's "complete, verifiable and irreversible
denuclearization."
In an interview with the BBC, Lee said that the North should not set any
preconditions for the summit meeting.
Lee has said that he will not meet with Kim unless the North Korean leader agrees
to discuss nuclear weapons and technology, an issue that Pyongyang has said has
nothing to do with South Korea and merits only U.S. attention.
Lee suspended hefty aid to North Korea after his inauguration in early 2008,
citing a lack of progress in the North's denuclearization through the six-party
talks. The negotiations involve the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and
Russia.
Lee's liberal predecessors, Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, provided hundreds of
thousands of tons of food and fertilizer every year to the North despite a lack
of progress in denuclearization.
Kim and Roh met with the North Korean leader in 2000 and 2007, respectively, but
skirted the nuclear issue, inviting criticism that they provided aid
unconditionally.
hdh@yna.co.kr
(END)

Delete & Prev | Delete & Next