(LEAD) Clinton due in Seoul on N. Korean nukes, alliance: State Dept.

(ATTN: UPDATES with ex-President Clinton not traveling with wife in 3rd para)
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 (Yonhap) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit
South Korea later this month to discuss six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear
dismantlement and strengthening alliance, the State Department said Thursday.

"The issue of North Korea will come up in conversation," spokesman Robert Wood
said in a daily news briefing where he announced Clinton's trip, which will also
take her to Tokyo, Jakarta and Beijing. "We all want to see how we can get the
North Koreans to abide by their international obligations." Clinton will be in
Seoul Feb. 19-20.
Secretary Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, "will not be
traveling" along with the secretary, another official said, adding Christopher
Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs, will
accompany Secretary Clinton. Hill reportedly has been tapped as the new U.S.
ambassador to Iraq.
Wood was referring to North Korea's refusal to agree to a verification protocol
for its nuclear facilities, which stalled the latest round of the multilateral
talks in December.
"She's very interested in hearing her counterparts' views about how we can best
go forward and get the North to do what we all know it should be doing," Wood
said.
The spokesman would not go into details of what Clinton will discuss with Japan
about Tokyo's refusal to do its part under the six-party deal, including
provision of energy aid to the North. Japan claims Pyongyang has failed to
provide enough of an explanation on the abduction of dozens of Japanese citizens
decades ago by North Korean agents.
North Korea returned five and said the rest are dead, but Japan insists more are
alive in the North. Pyongyang has threatened to expel Japan from the six-party
talks, which also include South Korea, China, and Russia.
"I don't want to get into the politics of oil shipments," Wood said. "The
important thing is that we meet our obligations. And when the North takes the
steps that it's required to do under the six-party framework, we and the other
members of the six-party framework will take the steps that we're required to
do."
The U.S. has said it will suspend heavy oil shipments to the North, citing North
Korea's refusal to allow samples to be taken from its nuclear reactor as part of
a verification regime.
Clinton will also discuss human rights in North Korea, the spokesman said.
"Human rights will be a big focus," he said. "And another issue I should have
mentioned that she cares very deeply about and will be discussing on the trip is
women's empowerment."
Clinton will also discuss "our expanding global cooperative partnership with our
ally, the Republic of Korea," Wood said.
Her Asian trip was arranged to compensate for President Obama's European tour
scheduled for April in order to avoid the impression that the administration is
sidelining Asia in favor of Europe and the Middle East, according to analysts
here.
Indonesia was included apparently as a gesture to the Muslim world. Obama lived
there as a child.
"I don't need to tell you that it's the largest Muslim country in the world,"
Wood said. "And the secretary feels it's important, that we need to reach out and
reach out early to Indonesia."
Obama has said his administration is not waging war on Muslims, but on
terrorists, although the war on terrorism initiated by former President Bush was
prompted by attacks by Muslims in 2001.
hdh@yna.co.kr
(END)