Obama not to accept N. Korea's nuclear status: ex-envoy

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead;UPDATES with Hubbard's remarks)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Feb. 18 (Yonhap) -- The new U.S. administration will not recognize North
Korea as a nuclear state, but will instead push stalled negotiations forward
through tough, experienced officials, a former envoy to South Korea said
Wednesday.
North Korea has sought to establish itself as a nuclear weapons state since
conducting its first atomic weapon test in 2006.
"We don't know whether they are actually weaponized devices," Thomas Hubbard said
in a Seoul forum, "What we do know for sure is that we will not recognize North
Korea's nuclear power."
Hubbard, who was the U.S. ambassador to South Korea from 2001-2004 under the Bush
administration, and who advised the Obama campaign on North Korea, said the new
administration will seek both direct and multilateral talks with Pyongyang in a
break from Bush's approach.
"I think the Obama policy will be quite different from Bush policy," he said,
recalling the day in 2002 when Bush called North Korea part of an "axis of evil"
as "the worst day of my 40-year professional career."
"I'm also impressed with the lineup of senior officials selected by the Obama
administration to deal with North Korea," he said in the forum titled "Directions
to Resolve the North Korean Nuclear Issue and Prospects for Changes in North
Korea."
Stephen Bosworth, a former ambassador to Seoul reportedly named as chief U.S.
envoy on North Korea, is "a tough negotiator with deep experience" who will
engage Pyongyang, but never "cozy up" to its claim of nuclear-armed status, he
said.
"They will make negotiations work," he said, "I don't see any John Bolton in this
(line-up)." Bolton, a former U.S. envoy to the United Nations, was a vocal critic
of engagement on Pyongyang.
North Korea has been dismantling its Yongbyon nuclear complex north of Pyongyang
under an aid-for-denuclearization accord reached in 2007 with the U.S., South
Korea, China, Japan and Russia. The six-party negotiations are now on hold, with
the Obama administration yet to roll out its North Korea policy.
In future negotiations, North Korea is expected to seek nuclear status by
offering to give up further arms development, a strategy tailored to the new U.S.
administration focused on non-proliferation, a Seoul expert said.
Cho Min, an analyst with the Korea Institute for National Unification, a
Seoul-based state-run think tank, said Pyongyang has demonstrated it will give up
"future nuclear weapons" by starting to disable the Yongbyon complex, but has
deliberately left unclear its position on several atomic weapons it is believed
to have already developed.
"On condition that it will observe 'non-proliferation,' which is the biggest
concern of the new U.S. government, it will try to be recognized as a nuclear
weapons state," he said.
In a message apparently intended for Obama, North Korea's Foreign Ministry said
on Jan. 17 that it will retain its nuclear weapons even after relations with
Washington are normalized. Pyongyang demanded the U.S. remove what it described
as nuclear threats against it, referring to U.S. military forces stationed in
South Korea that provide a nuclear umbrella for Seoul.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in the South as a deterrent against
Pyongyang's aggression, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. South Korea and the
U.S. will hold their joint annual war exercise next month.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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