US, South Korea prod North to return to nuclear talks
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-01-20 09:00

The United States and South Korea on Thursday urged North Korea to return promptly to stalled nuclear disarmament talks as the two allies took steps to bolster their 50-year-old security alliance.

The United States again rejected North Korea's reason for staying away from the nuclear talks and said Washington's financial crackdown on Pyongyang over suspected counterfeiting, money laundering and drug trafficking was a separate issue.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon used the launch of a new bilateral strategic dialogue to press North Korea to end its boycott of six-party nuclear talks.

"We both urge the North Koreans to come back to the talks without conditions because North Korea also is being told by the international community that it has to be a Korean Peninsula that is free of nuclear weapons and that North Korea must dismantle its nuclear programs," Rice said.

Rice and Ban issued a joint statement saying North Korea "must return promptly to the six-party talks and the focus of future discussions in Beijing must be on steps to implement the September 19 Joint Statement."

Last September South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States won the North's agreement in principle to scrap its nuclear arms in exchange for aid and security guarantees. Talks have stalled since the six states last met in November.

Ban's meeting with Rice was the latest of a flurry of efforts to restart the talks, which included a meeting on Wednesday in Beijing among U.S. envoy Christopher Hill, North Korean negotiator Kim Kye-gwan and Chinese envoy Wu Dawei.

STRATEGIC CONSULTATION

US State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that Hill "sent a strong, clear message" that Washington wanted Pyongyang to return to the table without conditions and without linking the financial clamp-down to the nuclear issue.

"The United States, as any country would, has and is going to continue to take steps to prevent illegal activities that may affect us or any other country, whether that's involvement in drug trafficking or money laundering or counterfeiting," McCormack said, summarizing Hill's message to Kim Kye-gwan.

Ban said he and Rice were analyzing North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's recent trip to China, where he reportedly told Chinese leaders he would help restart the nuclear talks.

"We take note (that) Chairman Kim Jong-il said that he would reaffirm the commitment to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula," Ban said.

Rice and Ban launched the Strategic Consultation for Allied Partnership, a project agreed at a bilateral summit last November to modernize and strengthen a security alliance dating back to the 1950-53 Korean War.

The allies hoped to forge a multilateral security mechanism for Northeast Asia and vowed to work to promote democracy, fight terrorism, and prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, said a statement issued after the talks.

The statement said South Korea "respects the necessity for strategic flexibility of the U.S. Forces in the ROK (Republic of Korea)" -- Washington's desire to be able to use its more than 30,000 troops in the South for regional contingencies.

Addressing South Korean wariness about provoking neighbors such as China, the statement added: "The U.S. respects the ROK position that it shall not be involved in a regional conflict in Northeast Asia against the will of the Korean people."