Clinton hopes to resume six-party talks in months

(ATTN:ADDS remarks by Wendy Sherman in paras 6-9)
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 (Yonhap) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Tuesday
said she hoped the Barack Obama administration will be able to engage North Korea
within months through bilateral and multilateral talks on the North's nuclear
ambitions.
Clinton made the remarks at a press session at the State Department, in the first
indication of a timeline in dealing with the nuclear-armed North, after meeting
with Czech Republic Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg.
North Korea in recent weeks has been threatening South Korea with scrapping of
bilateral ties, nullification of a western sea border and a possible military
conflict, gestures that analysts see as signals directed at the fledgling Obama
administration.
Obama has not yet appointed a special envoy on North Korea though he has
nominated envoys on the Middle East and Afghanistan and Pakistan, raising
concerns that he is sidelining North Korea to deal with the worst economic crisis
in decades and other more urgent security tasks.
"There are opportunities for the government and people of North Korea were they
to begin, once again, to engage through the six-party talks, through other
bilateral and multilateral forums," Clinton said. "And we're hopeful that we'll
see that in the weeks and months ahead."
Wendy Sherman, former North Korea policy coordinator under President Bill
Clinton's administration, also urged North Korea to be patient.
"It takes time to put together the team of the Obama administration," Sherman
told a forum here sponsored by the Korea Economic Institute. "North Korea is on
the agenda. Don't worry. They are coming back to you. People haven't forgotten
you."
Sherman is said to have rejected Hillary Clinton's invitation to serve as U.S.
special envoy for North Korea, amid speculation that no one is willing to take up
a job in which it may be difficult to produce results, with all the carrots and
sticks exhausted in the past decade.
Sherman, who most recently led the Obama administration's transition team at the
State Department, urged North Korea not to "behave badly to get their attention"
and hoped that on Clinton's Asian trip next week the new secretary of state "can
have face-to-face consultations to get the process started again."
Clinton said at her press session that she hoped North Korea's recent threats
will not lead to actions undermining regional security.
"We are hopeful that some of the behavior that we have seen coming from North
Korea in the last few weeks is, you know, not a precursor of any action that
would up the ante, or threaten the stability and peace and security of the
neighbors in the region," she said.
Clinton urged North Korea not to make such "unacceptable" threats, reiterating
her pledge to continue the six-party talks to "determine the most effective way
forward."
"We intend to pursue the six-party talks," she said. "Well, I am going to Asia to
reassert our commitment to our allies and partners in Asia, to work on a range of
issues with Japan and South Korea, China and Indonesia, as well as reaching out
to the rest of East Asia."
Clinton will embark Sunday on a four-nation Asian tour, flying into Seoul later
next week on the third leg of her trip, apparently organized to counterbalance
President Obama's planned European tour in April and the visits to the Middle
East and Pakistan and Afghanistan by special envoys George Mitchell and Richard
Holbrook.
"We expect, with our partners in those talks, to continue a policy that would
lead to the denuclearization of North Korea and the end of any proliferating
activities by North Korea," she said.
Six-party talks are underway to persuade North Korea to dismantle its nuclear
weapons, but skeptics say the North is trying to buy time by prolonging the
multilateral talks without any real intention of denuclearizing.
The latest round of the talks ground to a halt in December over North Korea's
refusal to allow inspectors to take samples from its nuclear reactor.
Obama has said he will continue the talks and would not dismiss the possibility
of meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il as part of bilateral engagement
to resolve concerns over North Korean nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
Clinton said in a Senate confirmation hearing last month that she would engage
North Korea directly as well as through the six-party talks to address the
communist nation's alleged uranium-based nuclear program and suspected nuclear
proliferation as well as its declared plutonium-producing reactor.
She also said at that time that she would use "smart power" that "requires
reaching out to both friends and adversaries, to bolster old alliances and to
forge new ones."
hdh@yna.co.kr
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