(LEAD) Lee calls for strong stand against N. Korea, one-step disarmament deal

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with more comments; CHANGES headline)
SEOUL, Sept. 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said Saturday
the international community should take a strong stand against nuclear-armed
North Korea and not be distracted by the communist nation's marginal conciliatory
gestures in recent weeks.

He stressed that the North will be left with no other choice but to denuclearize
as it is "unthinkable" for the world to recognize it as a de-facto nuclear power.
"The North Koreans will not readily give up their nuclear program," he said in an
interview with reporters at the Group of 20 economic summit in Pittsburgh.
Lee called for the North to return to the nuclear talks "with sincerity" and
negotiate a set of political and economic incentives including security
guarantees.
"If they are sincere, then we are ready to provide them with whatever is
necessary," he said.
The conservative president reiterated his support for a package deal with the
North to replace step-by-step negotiations, which have led to little progress in
long-standing efforts to remove its nuclear program.
"In the past, from experience, we know that negotiating with North Korea has
always been a process whereby we make one step forward and we take two steps
back, and we go back and forth and back and forth, without achieving much
results," he said.
Lee was referring to the North's practice of reaching a deal with the U.S., South
Korea, China, Russia, and Japan at the six-way talks, receiving economic
assistance, and then reneging on its obligations.
The North launched a long-range rocket in April and conducted a second nuclear
test the following month despite repeated warnings from the international
community.
In an apparent pursuit of bilateral talks with the U.S., the North gave amnesty
to two convicted American journalists in early August and invited Washington's
top nuclear envoy Stephen Bosworth to visit Pyongyang. The Obama administration
said it is open to a bilateral meeting with Pyongyang, but has said they will be
aimed at bringing the North back to the six-party talks.
On South Korea's economy, meanwhile, Lee struck an upbeat note.
"We have been doing relatively well, despite all the circumstances. We have been
posting somewhere around minus one percent for this year," he said. "As for
Korea's predictions for economic growth for next year, we expect somewhere in the
neighborhood of plus four percent."
He added it is still early for his country to be complacent, as the world has
yet to fully emerge from the financial crisis that began a year ago.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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