(Yonhap Interview) President Lee says N. Korea still unwilling to give up

(ATTN: UPDATES with additional remarks from President Lee on emperor's visit at bottom)
By Byun Duk-kun
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak on Tuesday urged the
international community to take a cautious approach in dealing with North Korea,
saying the communist state has yet to prove it is completely willing to give up
its nuclear ambitions.
The country has recently made a series of conciliatory gestures towards the South
and the United States, but the South Korean leader said this resulted mainly from
the impoverished North beginning to feel the toll of international sanctions
imposed shortly after its second atomic test in May.
"I believe North Korea was thrown off because these measures (sanctions) are
having a stronger impact than earlier anticipated," President Lee said in a joint
interview with Yonhap News Agency and Japan's Kyodo News.
"As a result of North Korea facing such a crisis, it is taking somewhat
reconciliatory gestures toward the United States and South Korea to avoid the
situation. But it is still not showing any sincerity or signs that it will give
up its nuclear ambitions," he said.
Inter-Korean relations began to thaw just last month for the first time since Lee
took office in February last year. Pyongyang released a South Korean worker it
had detained for 137 days at a joint industrial park in the North's border town
of Kaesong, following the release of two female U.S. journalists held for over
100 days after being arrested for illegal entry and unspecified "hostile acts."
The two Koreas are now setting details for reunions of families separated across
the border, the first such program in over two years.
Pyongyang, however, continues to up the ante in terms of its nuclear program,
claiming this month that it was in the final phase of completing uranium
enrichment, a program it for years strongly denied having.
Lee said the North's two-track strategy to continue its nuclear development while
improving its relations with neighboring countries only amounted to an attempt to
regain its access to international assistance and obtain tacit approval for its
nuclear programs.
"That is why member countries of the six-party talks must double their efforts to
persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions through a unified
strategy," the president said in the interview through a translator. The
six-party talks are attended by the two Koreas, Japan, China, Russia and the
United States.
In the same context, Lee emphasized closer cooperation between his country and
Japan, saying Pyongyang will likely soon approach Tokyo for concessions in the
nuclear disarmament talks.
Japan, hoping to account for its citizens allegedly kidnapped by North Korea
decades ago through the six-nation negotiations, has often used the six-way forum
to press Pyongyang on the issue. North Korea has balked at drawing such a link
and in the past demanded that Tokyo be excluded from the nuclear negotiations.
"I believe there could be a time when Japan can resolve the issue of its abducted
citizens, but that is only one more reason why it and other six-party countries
must reaffirm that their fundamental goal is to have North Korea give up its
nuclear arms," the president said.
Lee said bilateral cooperation between his country and Japan was also important
for both nations as well as for Asia in overcoming the ongoing global crisis.
"International cooperation is important during such a crisis, but I believe what
is more important is regional cooperation. Asia also needs cooperation within the
region, and I think cooperation between South Korea and Japan is especially
important because the two share the same values and have similar economic
systems," Lee said.
Seoul-Tokyo ties are often strained by disputes over their shared history that
includes 36 years of Japanese colonization of the Korean Peninsula in the past
century. The South Korean president said he expects the relationship to quickly
and permanently improve with the inauguration of Japan's new Yukio Hatoyama
government this week.
"The Korea-Japan relationship has steadily developed over the years, and there is
hope it will develop to a higher level at which they completely trust each
other," he said.
President Lee expressed hope Japanese Emperor Akihito will visit Seoul as early
as next year on a trip he said would symbolize "permanently removing the
distance" between the two countries.
"Korea-Japan relations have made significant progress. But once you think deeper,
the Japanese emperor has visited all other countries in the world but South
Korea," the president said.
"Saying we must move toward the future does not mean there is no problem with the
past," he said. "I believe a visit by the Japanese emperor to Korea will have a
very significant meaning, and that not just the visit itself but how he visits
will also be very important," Lee said.
Japan colonized Korea from 1910 to 1945, during which hundreds of thousands of
Korean men and women were mobilized for forced labor and sexual slavery.
Many Koreans still resent Japan, which they say has yet to sincerely atone for
its past atrocities against Korea.
The emperor's visit would mean "closing the book," he said.
"I have the expectation that his visit would be meaningful, produce positive
results, and be a visit permanently removing the distance between the two
countries. If the visit can be actualized, even next year, I believe we can find
a great meaning in bilateral ties."
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)