Activist`s detention not to affect efforts to reopen 6-way talks: State Dept.

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (Yonhap) -- The United States expressed hope Wednesday that
the illegal entry of an American missionary into North Korea on a human rights
crusade will not affect U.S. efforts to bring the North back to the six-party
talks on ending its nuclear ambitions.
"We consider this to be a consular issue unrelated to any security or political
issues," the State Department said in a statement.
The U.S. government is still seeking consular access to Robert Park, 28, through
the Swedish mission in Pyongyang, the statement said. Washington does not have
diplomatic relations with Pyongyang, and the Swedes handle consular affairs
involving Americans in North Korea.
Park, of Tucson, Arizona, entered the North on Christmas Day to call for
improvement in human rights in the reclusive communist state, designated by the
U.S. as one of the worst rights violators in the world.
North Korea Tuesday confirmed the detention of an American citizen who "illegally
entered the DPRK through the DPRK-China border on Dec. 24," without naming him,
and said that an investigation is under way. DPRK stands for the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.
The incident comes amid efforts by the U.S. to resume the six-party talks,
involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, which Pyongyang has
boycotted due to U.N. sanctions for its nuclear and missile tests earlier this
year.
Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy, visited
Pyongyang earlier this month, the first high-level contact since President
Obama's inauguration in January, but failed to obtain a commitment from the North
to return to the negotiations.
Bosworth, however, said that officials in Pyongyang "indicated they would like to
resume the six-party process," and agreed on the "essential nature" of the
six-party denuclearization agreement.
In August, former President Bill Clinton met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il
to secure the release of two American journalists detained months earlier for
illegally entering the North from China on a reporting tour.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said in Seoul earlier in the day that
he expected the North to deport Park after confirming his intention.
"For the U.S. government, the burden it feels seems to be different from the case
of the two female journalists," Yu said.
Park reportedly said he did not want to be freed until Kim releases all political
prisoners, believed to number in the tens of thousands, in several concentration
camps.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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