Bush under pressure to let US envoy visit North Korea

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush came under new pressure today to solve the North Korea nuclear issue, including a call from a Republican ally to let the chief US negotiator visit Pyongyang and to shift focus from a crackdown on the North's counterfeiting activities.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, speaking to the Asia Society, challenged key aspects of Bush's approach and said she and other senators, concerned about the impasse in six-country talks on North Korea's nuclear programme, were trying to arrange their own trip to Pyongyang.

The Alaska Republican said there was a "growing split on how to deal with North Korea" among the partners in the six-country talks, especially US allies Japan and South Korea and also with China, and she agrees with them on key points.

The question is, "do we stand firm in our approach, insisting that North Korea take unilateral action to meet the United States' demands, or do we give North Korea something to hang their hat on," said Murkowski, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats, worried North Korea is producing more nuclear weapons during the negotiating stalemate, were drafting legislation to force the administration to appoint a panel to review its policy on an emergency basis, congressional sources told Reuters.

The legislation, which also asks the administration to release classified details about the North's "mounting" nuclear and missile advances, was expected to be introduced as an amendment to the defence authorisation bill before the US Senate, they said.

The renewed nuclear debate comes as the administration is focused heavily on the Iran nuclear crisis and North Korea is making preparations to test an intercontinental ballistic missile that would reach US territory.

The last round of the nuclear talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States was in November.

So far, Bush has not authorized the US negotiator, Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, to visit North Korea, despite two invitations.

Murkowski said she was not advocating giving in to the North's demands when they have done nothing in return.

Rather, "what I am advocating for is the willingness of the United States to take confidence and trust-building steps with North Korea within the context of the six-party talks -- such as having our negotiator go to Pyongyang -- not in the context of bilateral negotiations as North Korea has asked for ... but in the context of an opportunity to build trust," she said.

Hill would not bring any formal proposals or demands but "just the significance of our chief negotiator going to Pyongyang is huge ... (and would show) we do want to build a relationship" with the North, she said.

Murkowski, who visited Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing in January, said South Korean and Chinese officials told her the US decision to crack down on what Washington says is currency counterfeiting by North Korea gave Pyongyang "an excuse not to return to the bargaining table."

She said she agreed with them, and urged the United States to shift its emphasis from counterfeiting to the more important nuclear issue because "right now we are sidetracked."

Murkowski also said she and a small group of senators were trying to arrange their own "trust-building" trip to Pyongyang.

While there is no formal invitation, "I think it's probably fair to say we are going to be able to make something happen. Right now it's as much a matter of scheduling as anything else," she said.

The formal US estimate is that North Korea has enough plutonium for one or two nuclear weapons but officials say that the actual number is nine or more.

- REUTERS