Obama urged to send emissary, hold summit with N. Korean leader

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (Yonhap) -- An American expert on North Korea urged U.S.
President Barack Obama on Sunday to send an envoy to Pyongyang and meet directly
with the North Korean leader to persuade him to abandon his nuclear ambitions.

"After consulting with South Korea and Japan, the Obama administration should
promptly send a high-level emissary, perhaps former President Bill Clinton or
former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, to Pyongyang to offer a little more
for a little more," said Leon V. Sigal, director of the Northeast Asia
Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council in New York.
Sigal also advised in an article posted on the Web site of The Bulletin of the
Atomic Scientists that Obama "hold a summit meeting with Kim Jong-il in return
for North Korea disposing some of its plutonium -- at a minimum the spent nuclear
fuel removed during the disablement process."
Obama said during his election campaign last year that he was willing to meet
with Kim without preconditions, but he has yet to take any concrete steps in
dealing with Pyongyang.
North Korea detonated its first nuclear device in 2006 and is believed to possess
ballistic missiles that can reach the western part of the mainland United States.
Experts continue to debate over whether the 2006 detonation was a success.
Analysts say Obama has put the North Korean nuclear issue on hold due to the
urgency of the economic crisis, along with the conflict in the Gaza Strip,
ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the issue of Iran's nuclear ambitions.
The new U.S. President recently nominated former Sen. George Mitchell as the U.S.
special envoy to the Middle East and sent him to meet with the region's leaders.
But Obama has not yet nominated a special envoy to North Korea, as some expected
he might.
The latest round of six-way talks on denuclearizing North Korea ended without an
agreement in December after the North resisted signing a verification protocol
for its nuclear facilities, which would have included taking samples from its
main nuclear reactor.
The U.S. responded by saying it would suspend energy aid to the North promised
under a six-party deal.
Sigal said an emissary could promise to provide additional energy aid in return
for North Korea's acceptance of a written agreement on verification.
The author of "Disarming Strangers: Nuclear Diplomacy with North Korea," Sigal
said that an envoy would have to try to "induce a moratorium on nuclear and
missile tests and (reach) an agreement on dismantlement." He said any agreement
should include "a peace treaty that ends the Korean War when North Korea is
nuclear-free."
The 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a formal peace treaty, leaving
the two Koreas technically at war.
Sigal also urged the Obama administration to move to establish full diplomatic
relations with North Korea once Pyongyang begins due procedures to dismantle its
nuclear program under the six-party framework.
The expert also recommended Obama "commence a regional security dialogue" and
"complete the construction of the power plants, perhaps including a replacement
nuclear reactor" and "deepen economic engagement with agricultural, energy, and
infrastructure aid."
Construction in North Korea of two light-water nuclear reactors, which are not
capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium, was suspended in 2002 soon after
Washington accused Pyongyang of running a secret uranium-based nuclear program.
The reactors were supposed to be provided under the 1994 Geneva Framework
Agreement signed by North Korea and the U.S. The pact calls for the freezing of
North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear facility in return for the construction of the
reactors, energy aid and diplomatic ties.
Sigal said he was not sure whether Pyongyang has any real intention to abandon
its nuclear weapons, although he noted the North Korean regime has repeatedly
said it will disarm if ties with Washington are normalized.
"Whether North Korea means what it says isn't certain, but the only way to test
it is to try to build mutual trust over time by faithfully carrying out a series
of reciprocal steps that starts now," he said.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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