Pro-N. Korea newspaper urges U.S. to open two-way talks

SEOUL, May 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea will continue to raise the stakes no matter
how seriously it is punished by the international community unless the United
States takes direct action to resolve the nuclear crisis, a pro-Pyongyang
newspaper said Tuesday.

The Choson Sinbo, which conveys North Korea's perspective to foreign readers,
said in the article that the only way to stop the North's accelerating arms
buildup is for the U.S. to discard its hostile policy and seek bilateral talks.
"No matter how high (the U.S.) raises the degree of pressure, North Korea will
not change its current course," the Tokyo-based paper said.
Heavier punishments "may add momentum" to "self-defense measures," the paper
said. "To cut off the escalating cycle of tension, there is no other way but to
start dialogue and negotiation."
U.S. President Barack Obama strongly condemned North Korea's nuclear test on
Monday, calling it "a great threat to the peace and security of the world."
International rebukes overflowed, and the U.N. Security Council immediately
started working to introduce harsher sanctions against the North.
The article said the international community's call for a "united response" was
nothing but "a slogan and will have no effect," as six-party nuclear disarmament
talks have already failed. Pyongyang withdrew from the multilateral negotiations
-- also involving South Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia -- in protest of
the U.N. Security Council's condemnation of its April 5 rocket launch.
"Other nations have no options, and shaping a new diplomatic framework is
ultimately up to the U.S. North Korea, which prioritizes its own self-defense,
would only consider dialogue if it sees a change of attitude from the U.S., with
whom it is at war," the paper said.
The Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice, not a formal peace treaty,
leaving the U.S.-led U.N. coalition and North Korea technically at war.
The Obama administration faces a whole new set of challenges, the article said,
as North Korea has now nuclear weapons that it did not have in the Bill Clinton
era. Pyongyang began to produce atomic bombs while George W. Bush was in the
White House, but tension had subsided during his last years due to
action-to-action accords, it added.
The Obama administration "made the mistake of insisting the rocket launch is a
missile test" and "propelled" North Korea to carry out its second nuclear test,
the paper said. The U.S. president should now discard the six-party framework and
start nuclear disarmament talks bilaterally with North Korea, the article
continued, citing his policy to pursue a similar process with Russia.
"If President Obama intends to carry out his plan on the Korean Peninsula and the
region without exceptions, it should get out of its current coercive diplomacy
that has ruptured the six-party framework and broken down the denuclearization
process," it said.
"The resolution of the confrontation and tension depends on whether the new U.S.
administration can take a bold approach toward North Korea."
hkim@yna.co.kr
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