N. Korea dismisses Seoul's 'grand bargain' proposal as rubbish

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Sept. 30 (Yonhap) -- North Korea scoffed Wednesday at South Korean
President Lee Myung-bak's ambitious proposal for a "grand bargain" with Pyongyang
on its nuclear program, claiming Lee is trying to meddle in an issue for
Pyongyang and Washington to solve bilaterally.
In what could be viewed as the North's first official response to Lee's offer,
the state news agency KCNA downplayed it as mere a "replica of the watchwords" of
the "Denuclearization, Opening, 3,000" initiative by Seoul which it argued was
already proved pointless at home and abroad. The initiative, one of Lee's
campaign pledges, aims to help the communist neighbor increase its per capita
income to US$3,000 over the next decade if it completely abandon its nuclear
weapons and opens up to the outside world.
"They are seriously mistaken if they calculate the DPRK (North Korea) would
accept the ridiculous 'proposal' for 'the normalization of relations' with
someone and for sort of 'economic aid,'" the KCNA said in an English-version
commentary.
"The nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula should be settled between the DPRK and
the U.S." as it is a product of Washington's hostility toward the North, added
the commentary.
Lee is "making much fuss, trumpeting about 'grand bargain' while failing to say
anything to the U.S. It is evident that he seeks to meddle and stand in the way
of settling the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the U.S," it charged.
In a speech last week in New York, Lee said the world should seek a grand
bargain, or one-shot deal, with the North in which it will be given security
assurances and other incentives if it dismantles the core component of its
nuclear program, for instance its nuclear bombs and key related materials.
South Korean nuclear negotiators are in consultations with their counterparts in
the other members of the stalled six-party disarmament talks -- the U.S., China,
Russia, and Japan -- on the proposal.
After an initially tepid response, the U.S. has expressed support for Lee's
proposal.
A resolution to the nuclear problem requires a "comprehensive and definitive
approach," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg told reporters
Wednesday after meeting South Korean official during his Asia tour. "I think that
is what President Lee Myung-bak is talking about, that's what we're talking
about. I think we are absolutely in sync on this."
Notably, however, the news agency did not directly name the South Korean
president, only using the term "the South Korean chief executive," apparently
reflecting Pyongyang's efforts to thaw icy inter-Korean ties. The North's
propaganda media previously frequently criticized the conservative president,
using his name and calling him a "traitor."
The regular broadsides waned visibly after a North Korean delegation met Lee in
Seoul last month during a trip here to pay condolences on the death of former
South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
The KCNA report blamed Lee's advisers as "more deplorable," accusing them of
putting their president "to shame under the world's eyes."
"This makes the world view them as nothing but stupid guys who do not know where
they stand," it said.
"The south Korean chief executive and his 'advisers' team' had better have a
midday nap under the nuclear umbrella provided by the U.S. rather than running
helter-skelter, unable to sound out its master, much less knowing how the world
moves," it said.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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