S. Korea, U.S. question N. Korean intentions

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with details)
By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Nov. 13 (Yonhap) -- Efforts by the outgoing Bush administration to create
a workable scheme to denuclearize North Korea are being stymied as Pyongyang
balks at allowing samples to be taken from its main nuclear facilities in
Yongybon.

Sample-taking by outside inspectors is a key part of what the U.S. says are
agreed-upon "scientific procedures" to verify the secretive nation's June
declaration of its nuclear assets.
Pyongyang denies having made the agreement and is refuting Washington's claim
that it verbally agreed to the set of scientific verification measures, which
include sampling, during Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill's trip to
Pyongyang last month.
The North's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday in a statement that allowing sampling
was not part of an October agreement on verification procedures reached with
Washington. The ministry described the U.S. demand for sample-taking as a breach
of sovereignty, warning it will "certainly bring about a war."
The differences highlight the difficulties in negotiating with the North's opaque
regime. South Korean and U.S. officials ascribe the dispute to diverging
interpretations on the ambiguous verbal deal. In a bid to clarify the
controversial agreement, Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy on the nuclear talks,
held separate meetings in New York last week with Ri Gun, director general of the
North Korean Foreign Ministry's American bureau.
Officials here have noted that Pyongyang issued the statement before Ri's return
to the North.
"There is a need to analyze why North Korea issued such a statement before Ri's
return," Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said at a meeting with the Kwanhun Club, a
group of senior South Korean journalists.
Yu said South Korea's top nuclear envoy Kim Sook and his American counterpart
Christopher Hill had telephone conversations earlier in the day to discuss
Pyongyang's stance.
"The U.S. will have additional contacts with North Korea to ascertain its
intentions," he said. "There is understanding among the five parties, aside from
North Korea, that the agreement on the verification measures include sampling."
Those five parties -- South Korea, the U.S., China, Russia, and Japan -- make up
the other dialogue partners in six-way talks on ending the North's nuclear
program.
Pyongyang's refusal to allow sample-taking dampens hopes of resuming the six-way
talks this year and of completing the protracted second stage of the three-tier
denuclearization process before the Bush administration ends its tenure in
January.
A South Korean nuclear envoy, speaking to local press on condition of anonymity
earlier this week, said it would be difficult to wrap up the disablement of the
Yongbyon nuclear facilities and the delivery of energy aid, promised under last
year's aid-for-denuclearization deal, by the end of this year.
"If six-way talks are resumed within the year, we will be able to try to finish
the second phase before the Bush administration leaves. The verification process
can be pushed forward together with the work," he said.
Experts were skeptical, however, saying North Korea seems to be more interested in
talking with the incoming U.S. administration under President-elect Barack Obama.
"They have high hopes that the Obama administration will be more generous in terms
of getting energy assistance and political recognition," Gary Samore, vice
president of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, said at a seminar in
Washington. "North Korea's strategy is to delay... in the expectation that they
can get a better deal from the Obama administration."
The South Korean foreign minister, meanwhile, said there is no need to overreact
to the North's most recent actions and threats.
"We need to carefully review the pattern of North Korea's positions during the
transition periods of past South Korean and U.S. governments," he said.
The North has a tendency to create "small crises before seeking to resolve a
problem," he said.
lcd@yna.co.kr
(END)