ID :
44897
Tue, 02/10/2009 - 10:18
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/44897
The shortlink copeid
Obama advised to broaden engagement with Pyongyang
By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Yonhap) -- The new U.S. administration of President Barack Obama should broaden its scope of engagement with North Korea to cover a variety of issues, taking lessons from the "politically fragile" approach of its predecessor, an American expert said Monday.
Joel S. Wit, a former State Department official who worked on U.S. policy toward
North Korea in the 1990s, pointed out that resolving the North Korean problem is
far more difficult now than eight years ago.
He said that Pyongyang has begun a gambit to secure better relations with
Washington while holding onto its nuclear arsenal, including its stockpile of
fissile material, which has quadrupled. The North withdrew from the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty and conducted a nuclear test in 2006.
"The Obama administration should broaden the scope of engagement through
establishing new venues for bilateral and multilateral talks ... on setting up a
peace regime and relocating the remains of U.S. soldiers (who were killed during
the 1950-53 Korean War)," he said in a Seoul seminar. "That will create a much
more stable and stronger engagement process."
Wit, an adjunct senior research fellow at the Weatherhead East Asia Institute of
Columbia University, also said Washington should not hesitate to deal directly
with Pyongyang at whatever level is necessary, ranging from special envoy to the
president.
Obama has yet to appoint his special envoy to North Korea. Wit said that whoever
will be appointed could be an early indicator of Obama's policy on Pyongyang,
which has not yet taken concrete shape.
"Whether a senior prominent person who directly reports to the secretary and the
president or a low-level official, the same level with Chris Hill, or lower level
is very important," he said. "Special envoy is important internally too in the
U.S. government."
Christopher Hill, who served as Washington's top nuclear negotiator for the
six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear dismantlement, has been tapped as new
U.S. Ambassador to Iraq.
The nuclear envoy will formulate a policy and sell it to Congress, as well as act
as a "teacher" for more senior officials, he said.
He suggested that Washington try to quicken the slow-going disabling of the
North's main nuclear facilities in Yongbyon by allowing the communist nation to
reprocess its current batch of spent fuel rods on the condition that the one
bomb's worth of plutonium separated from them is immediately shipped out of the
country.
With regard to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's upcoming tour of Northeast
Asia, he said, "It is a good start."
Clinton is scheduled to travel to Seoul from Feb. 19-20 after visiting Japan and
Indonesia. Clinton will then visit Beijing.
"Her visit will be more to listen," he said, adding U.S. policy on Pyongyang is
unlikely to take shape until her regional trip.
SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Yonhap) -- The new U.S. administration of President Barack Obama should broaden its scope of engagement with North Korea to cover a variety of issues, taking lessons from the "politically fragile" approach of its predecessor, an American expert said Monday.
Joel S. Wit, a former State Department official who worked on U.S. policy toward
North Korea in the 1990s, pointed out that resolving the North Korean problem is
far more difficult now than eight years ago.
He said that Pyongyang has begun a gambit to secure better relations with
Washington while holding onto its nuclear arsenal, including its stockpile of
fissile material, which has quadrupled. The North withdrew from the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty and conducted a nuclear test in 2006.
"The Obama administration should broaden the scope of engagement through
establishing new venues for bilateral and multilateral talks ... on setting up a
peace regime and relocating the remains of U.S. soldiers (who were killed during
the 1950-53 Korean War)," he said in a Seoul seminar. "That will create a much
more stable and stronger engagement process."
Wit, an adjunct senior research fellow at the Weatherhead East Asia Institute of
Columbia University, also said Washington should not hesitate to deal directly
with Pyongyang at whatever level is necessary, ranging from special envoy to the
president.
Obama has yet to appoint his special envoy to North Korea. Wit said that whoever
will be appointed could be an early indicator of Obama's policy on Pyongyang,
which has not yet taken concrete shape.
"Whether a senior prominent person who directly reports to the secretary and the
president or a low-level official, the same level with Chris Hill, or lower level
is very important," he said. "Special envoy is important internally too in the
U.S. government."
Christopher Hill, who served as Washington's top nuclear negotiator for the
six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear dismantlement, has been tapped as new
U.S. Ambassador to Iraq.
The nuclear envoy will formulate a policy and sell it to Congress, as well as act
as a "teacher" for more senior officials, he said.
He suggested that Washington try to quicken the slow-going disabling of the
North's main nuclear facilities in Yongbyon by allowing the communist nation to
reprocess its current batch of spent fuel rods on the condition that the one
bomb's worth of plutonium separated from them is immediately shipped out of the
country.
With regard to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's upcoming tour of Northeast
Asia, he said, "It is a good start."
Clinton is scheduled to travel to Seoul from Feb. 19-20 after visiting Japan and
Indonesia. Clinton will then visit Beijing.
"Her visit will be more to listen," he said, adding U.S. policy on Pyongyang is
unlikely to take shape until her regional trip.
