(News Focus) Lee sends tough signal on N. Korean nuclear program

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's reaffirmation
of his hard-line North Korea policy on Tuesday is expected to put further
pressure on the communist North to give up its nuclear weapons program, analysts
here said.
Lee said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency that he saw no sign of Pyongyang
moving to abandon its atomic drive despite recent conciliatory moves, and called
for strong enforcement of international sanctions against the North.
The tough message came as the United States was considering holding bilateral
talks with the North, an goal long pursued by Pyongyang, to break a prolonged
stalemate over its nuclear weapons program.
North Korea appears to be "thrown off" by the impact of U.N. sanctions imposed
after its nuclear test in May, Lee said in the interview jointly held with
Japan's Kyodo News. The sanctions ban the country from engaging in the weapons
trade, a major source of income, and strictly limits other cash flows into the
communist nation.
"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," the president said.
Yang Moo-jin, a specialist with the University of North Korea Studies in Seoul,
said Lee's tough message underlined cooperation between South Korea and Japan's
new government in response to the warming atmosphere between Pyongyang and
Washington.
"The president underscores principles over flexibility," Yang said.
"He is saying that inter-Korean cooperation will be limited before North Korea
denuclearizes, and he is pointing out the abduction issue is also important to
Japan. He calls for South Korea-Japan cooperation, while North Korea and the U.S.
take a step ahead."
Pyongyang has invited Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North
Korea policy, for one-on-one talks. Washington said it was yet to decide whether
to send him, but the conclusion is widely expected to be positive.
Diplomatic sources in Seoul say Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will also visit North
Korea early next month ahead of the expected Pyongyang-Washington talks.
The flurry of diplomatic efforts come as North Korea was trying to mend fences
with regional powers in a dramatic shift from its earlier nuclear and missile
tests. Last month, Pyongyang released South Korean and U.S. citizens after months
of captivity, resuscitated sagging inter-Korean business ventures and agreed to
hold reunions for families separated by the border, the first in nearly two
years, later this month.
Lee played down those softening moves as attempts to drag out the nuclear
stalemate. Pyongyang did warn that its uranium enrichment program, an alternative
route to building nuclear bombs, has entered its final stage, and that plutonium
it has extracted from spent fuel rods was "being weaponized."
"North Korea appears to have a goal of buying time to fix the nuclear issue (its
possession of nuclear weapons) as a fait accompli while it still receives
economic assistance," he said.
Lee called for a united approach to bring the North back to the six-party
negotiating table over its nuclear program, which also involves South Korea, the
U.S., China, Japan and Russia. Within the multilateral framework, Japan has a
"good chance" of resolving its abduction issue, he added.
Tokyo has urged Pyongyang to come clean on its abduction of Japanese nationals in
the late 1970s and early 80s, while the North says the issue was settled after it
returned several surviving abductees.
The six-party talks, last held in December, have not continued since the Barack
Obama administration came to power in Washington.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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