Lee urges N. Korea to unconditionally return to 6-party talks

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By Byun Duk-kun
NEW YORK, Sept. 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called on
North Korea Wednesday to immediately return to international dialogue on ending
its nuclear programs, building on his earlier call for the communist nation to
grab what may be its last chance to win concessions for its denuclearization.
"We urge the DPRK to respond to the international community's efforts and return
to the six-party talks without any condition and without further delay," Lee said
in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly here, referring to North Korea
by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The six-party talks refer to the international process aimed at denuclearizing
the North that also involves South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and
Russia. Pyongyang had boycotted the talks since late last year amid a deadlock
over its past nuclear activities and said in April that it will entirely quit the
process.
The South Korean president's call to resume dialogue came a few days after he
proposed a "grand bargain" with North Korea that would require the North to
completely denuclearize in a single step in exchange for various incentives.
"To North Korea, this is not a crisis, but an opportunity. The North must not
miss this precious opportunity that may well be its last," he said Monday while
speaking to a group of American leaders at a luncheon hosted by the Council on
Foreign Relations.
Lee's proposal seemed to have stirred up a rather skeptical response not only
from Pyongyang, but also from Seoul's closest ally, the United States.
Shortly after Lee's proposal, Kurt Campbell, the U.S. assistant secretary of
state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, cast some doubts by telling reporters,
"The problem is we're at the very, very early stages of this."
Kim Sung-hwan, Seoul's top presidential secretary for security and foreign
affairs, dismissed growing concerns over a possible gap between Seoul and
Washington on how to approach the North.
"The idea (of a grand bargain) itself was not proposed by South Korea alone, but
came as the result of discussions among the five participants of the six-party
talks on what we can give to the North," Kim told reporters here.
He also noted the U.S. had been briefed extensively on the president's latest
proposal before it was publicly released, saying Campbell may have given the
unenthusiastic response because he was caught off guard by the question.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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