Perry calls for U.S., allies to press "reset button" on N. Korea policy

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Feb. 23 (Yonhap) -- Former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry said
Monday it is time to "press a reset button" on often-troubled dealings with North
Korea, adding "business as usual" will not work to resolve the nuclear problem.
"I believe it is time to press a reset button on dealings with North Korea,"
Perry said at an international conference marking the first anniversary of
President Lee Myung-bak's inauguration. "To determine how the United States
should deal with North Korea will be one of the first major security decisions of
President Obama."
Perry, who served as Washington's point man on Pyongyang during the Clinton era,
said it would be "unwise" for President Barack Obama to simply take a
wait-and-see stance amid reports of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's illness.
Kim suffered a stroke last summer, but has recovered well enough to maintain
control, according to South Korean intelligence officials.
"In spite of his health problems, he might be in office for many more years. In
the meantime, the danger of North Korean threats will continue to increase," Perry
pointed out.
Nonetheless, Hillary Clinton openly expressed concerns about a looming leadership
transition in the communist nation on her first trip here as secretary of state
last week.
Obama's appointment of Stephen Bosworth, a former U.S. ambassador to Seoul, as
his high-level envoy on North Korea is the first step, according to Perry, known
for his 1999 proposal for a three-stage resolution to the North Korea's weapons
of mass destruction. The focus of the so-called Perry Process was to freeze North
Korea's missile activities and pave the way for normalizing relations between
Pyongyang and Washington.
Perry admitted that Bosworth faces a much tougher task than his mission a decade
ago.
"My problem was only to keep the North Koreans from building a nuclear arsenal,
but he has to get them to give up the small arsenal they already have. It is
obviously a much steeper hill," Perry, now a professor at Stanford University,
said.
Perry advised Bosworth to develop a common threat assessment and common
negotiating strategy with South Korea and Japan, saying he had consulted with his
counterparts for months before going to North Korea.
"That solidarity was a great asset," he said, emphasizing that Pyongyang should
not be allowed to drive a wedge between the allies.
Perry also called for "a strategy that offers incentives to North Korea for
giving up its nuclear weapons, as well as an explicit, serious cost if they
choose to continue it."
"He must deal with the North Korean government as it is -- not as he would wish
it to be," he added.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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