ID :
49729
Tue, 03/10/2009 - 04:41
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/49729
The shortlink copeid
(2nd LD) Bosworth urges N. Korea to improve communication with S. Korea
SEOUL, March 9 (Yonhap) -- A high-level U.S. envoy called on North Korea Monday to improve communications with South Korea and reduce tension on the peninsula by denuclearizing through a multilateral process.
Stephen Bosworth said Pyongyang's latest measure to cut a main military
communications channel to protest the United States and South Korea's joint
military training is regrettable.
"Obviously, this is something that we regret," Stephen Bosworth told reporters
after a series of meetings with President Lee Myung-bak and other top-ranking
officials. "We think that improved communications between South and North Korea
must in the longer run be a key component of the six-party effort to reduce
tension and to bring about the denuclearization of the peninsula."
Eighty South Korean workers remain stranded in an inter-Korean joint industrial
complex in Kaesong, a North Korean border town, because the North pulled the plug
on its military communication line earlier in the day. Cross-border visits by
South Koreans require North Korean military's endorsement through the
communication line.
He reaffirmed that Washington will push for talks with Pyongyang on the basis of
its alliance with Seoul.
"Because of our alliance, the need for U.S. cooperation and coordination with the
ROK (South Korea) is paramount, and we are dedicated to that," he said. "The
fundamental goal of the United States remains unchanged, and that is the complete
and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."
The envoy dismissed worries that U.S. President Barack Obama's administration may
put a higher priority on direct negotiations with Pyongyang than the often
troubled six-party talks also involving South Korea, China, Russia, and Japan.
"We continue to regard the six-party process as the central element of our effort
to continue with the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," he said.
Bosworth again warned North Korea not to fire a ballistic missile, saying it
would violate a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in 2006 after its
nuclear and missile tests.
"Whether they describe it as a satellite launch or something else makes no
difference. This would be a violation of the U.N. Security Council Resolution
1718," he said.
Meeting Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan earlier in the day, the veteran diplomat
said he does not have excessive expectations about what he can do about North
Korea.
"I have no illusions about what I have agreed to do. It is a very difficult
mandate ... a very difficult sort of task," he said
The envoy arrived in South Korea on Saturday for a four-day stay, the last stop
in an Asian tour that also took him to Beijing and Tokyo.
He said he would fly home directly on Tuesday as scheduled in response to a
question on the possibility of a trip to the North.
lcd@yna.co.kr
(END)
Stephen Bosworth said Pyongyang's latest measure to cut a main military
communications channel to protest the United States and South Korea's joint
military training is regrettable.
"Obviously, this is something that we regret," Stephen Bosworth told reporters
after a series of meetings with President Lee Myung-bak and other top-ranking
officials. "We think that improved communications between South and North Korea
must in the longer run be a key component of the six-party effort to reduce
tension and to bring about the denuclearization of the peninsula."
Eighty South Korean workers remain stranded in an inter-Korean joint industrial
complex in Kaesong, a North Korean border town, because the North pulled the plug
on its military communication line earlier in the day. Cross-border visits by
South Koreans require North Korean military's endorsement through the
communication line.
He reaffirmed that Washington will push for talks with Pyongyang on the basis of
its alliance with Seoul.
"Because of our alliance, the need for U.S. cooperation and coordination with the
ROK (South Korea) is paramount, and we are dedicated to that," he said. "The
fundamental goal of the United States remains unchanged, and that is the complete
and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."
The envoy dismissed worries that U.S. President Barack Obama's administration may
put a higher priority on direct negotiations with Pyongyang than the often
troubled six-party talks also involving South Korea, China, Russia, and Japan.
"We continue to regard the six-party process as the central element of our effort
to continue with the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," he said.
Bosworth again warned North Korea not to fire a ballistic missile, saying it
would violate a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in 2006 after its
nuclear and missile tests.
"Whether they describe it as a satellite launch or something else makes no
difference. This would be a violation of the U.N. Security Council Resolution
1718," he said.
Meeting Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan earlier in the day, the veteran diplomat
said he does not have excessive expectations about what he can do about North
Korea.
"I have no illusions about what I have agreed to do. It is a very difficult
mandate ... a very difficult sort of task," he said
The envoy arrived in South Korea on Saturday for a four-day stay, the last stop
in an Asian tour that also took him to Beijing and Tokyo.
He said he would fly home directly on Tuesday as scheduled in response to a
question on the possibility of a trip to the North.
lcd@yna.co.kr
(END)
