(Yonhap Interview) Seoul seeking Chinese help for release of detainee in N.K.:minister

(ATTN: CORRECTS involved missions in Pyongyang, not China, in 6th para, MODIFIES
with minor edits)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, April 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea is working through China and other
diplomatic channels to secure the release of a South Korean worker detained in
North Korea, Seoul's unification minister said Wednesday.
The diplomatic efforts come at a particularly sensitive time, as Seoul is
expected later this week announce its full participation in a U.S.-led
anti-proliferation drive, the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a move
denounced by the North as tantamount to a "declaration of war."
North Korea has been holding the South Korean worker in a joint industrial
complex in its territory for 17 days, accusing him of denouncing its political
system and trying to tempt a female North Korean worker to defect. No access or
interviews have been allowed for the detained employee of Hyundai Asan Corp., a
unit of Hyundai Group which developed the joint complex in the North's border
town of Kaesong along with other cross-border economic ventures.
"Our government is making diplomatic efforts (for his release), and will continue
to do so with concrete measures," Unification Minister Hyun In-taek said in an
interview with Yonhap News Agency.
Hyun said Seoul is working with China and other countries that have diplomatic
missions in Pyongyang to get its message to the North.
"We are making indirect diplomatic efforts through countries that have missions
in Pyongyang, including China," Hyun said.
The North is also holding two female U.S. journalists who were arrested near its
border with China last month and said they will be tried on its soil on charges
of illegal entry and "hostile acts." Washington officials said the U.S.
government is dealing with the issue through the Swedish mission in Pyongyang, as
the two countries have no diplomatic relations.
The two cases remained deadlocked amid escalating tensions. Defying international
warnings, North Korea launched a long-range rocket on April 5 and, in protest at
the U.N. Security Council condemnation against it, bolted from nuclear
disarmament talks on Tuesday.
Pyongyang says it has orbited a satellite as part of its peaceful program to
develop space. South Korean and U.S. monitors refute the claim, saying they found
no such object in space and the launch may be a cover for a long-range missile
test.
In its first step to nullify the nuclear talks, North Korea told inspectors of
the International Atomic Energy Agency monitoring its Yongbyon nuclear facility
to leave the country, the nuclear watchdog said in a statement on Tuesday (Vienna
time).
In a move likely to further raise tensions, South Korea plans to announce its
participation in the PSI drive within days. The announcement, initially expected
on Wednesday morning, has been delayed amid speculation that the South Korean
government is making a last-minute review of the timing in consideration of its
relations with North Korea.
The PSI, initiated by the George W. Bush administration in 2003 and now
participated in by 94 member states, is aimed at interdicting and seizing ships
and planes suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction and related
materials. North Korea, known for exporting weapons and technology, is understood
to be one of the main targets.
Despite concerns that Seoul's joining of the PSI may provoke North Korea to delay
the worker's release, Hyun said he does not expect the PSI will do any harm to
inter-Korean issues. Such concerns come from a "misunderstanding" of the PSI, as
Seoul is already entitled to such anti-proliferation efforts under an
inter-Korean shipping accord reached in 2005, he argued.
"It is wrong to think there will be a big problem if we join the PSI," Hyun said.
"Any country that opposes the spread of weapons of mass destruction should show
it's making efforts to prevent it (proliferation), and we are making those
efforts and we are not doing this specifically targeting North Korea."
Turning to North Korea's announcement that it will consider building a
light-water reactor to produce energy, Hyun disputed its feasibility, saying
North Korea lacks the financial resources for the costly construction.
A light-water reactor can cost 10 times as much as the rocket it recently fired,
he said. A state-run think tank in Seoul has said the rocket launch may have cost
North Korea between US$3 million and $5 million.
"It is a tremendous amount of money, compared to North Korea's economic ability.
We believe North Korea at this time does not have the ability to do it in a
normal manner," Hyun said.
The North was promised two light-water reactors in exchange for freezing its
nuclear activities in a 1994 bilateral deal with the U.S. But the project, which
cost South Korea billions of dollars, collapsed in late 2002 when Washington
accused Pyongyang of running a secret uranium enrichment program. The fresh
nuclear standoff led the regional countries to start the six-party talks that
involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)