China urged to do more to pressure N. Korea: CFR president

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 (Yonhap) -- A U.S. expert on Korea urged China Friday to do
more to persuade North Korea to return to the six-party talks on ending its
nuclear ambitions.

"Where I'd like to see China do a different policy is North Korea," Richard
Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said in an interview with
MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "I would love them to use their leverage there in ways
they've not used it."
North Korea is demanding that the U.S. engage with it bilaterally instead of in
the multilateral talks, citing international sanctions slapped on the North after
its nuclear and missile tests in recent months.
The U.S. says it will dialogue with the North only within the six-party framework.
Haass said China has the key to the stalled nuclear negotiations.
"Two-thirds of North Korea's trade transits China," he said. "If the Chinese want
to turn the screws on the North Koreans, they can. They have much more influence
than we do."
China, however, has often been criticized for not fully implementing U.N.
sanctions on North Korea due to fear over the collapse of the North, which
borders China, resulting in floods of refugees.
China is also said to shun the possibility of North Korea's collapse, leading to
a unified Korea under the influence of the U.S., or a nuclear-armed North Korea
destabilizing regional security at a crucial time when China is trying to emerge
as an economic power to match the U.S. within decades
Haass described China as "the only outside country that could materially
influence what the North Koreans are doing," but added, "They (the Chinese) are
not prepared to do it because they're worried about bringing it down and seeing
ultimately a united Korea, under the South, that's part of the American orbit."
He supported the Obama administration's refusal to abandon the six-party talks
and deal directly with North Korea.
"And quite honestly, the place to really have the conversation is in Beijing,
much more than Pyongyang, because it's the Chinese who have the influence over
them," he said. China is the host of the six-party talks.
The recent visit to Pyongyang by former U.S. President Bill Clinton may not lead
to reconciliation between the two countries, despite the North's hope for that,
he said.
"The North Koreans are hoping it leads to something," he said. "I tend to think
it was a one-off. But to talk to the North Koreans with the secretary of state,
Bill Clinton or anybody else, I believe makes sense."
North Korean diplomats visited with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson Wednesday to
ask him to convey Pyongyang's wish for bilateral talks with the Obama
administration, amid hopes for possible reconciliation after North Korean leader
Kim Jong-il reached out to the U.S. and South Korea recently.
Kim met with Clinton and a South Korean businesswoman to release two American
journalists and a South Korean detained in Pyongyang. He also sent a high-level
condolence delegation to the state funeral for former South Korean President Kim
Dae-jung and ordered resumption of inter-Korean tour projects suspended last year
amid worsening ties with the hardline government of Lee Myung-bak.
hdh@yna.co.kr
(END)