Little diplomatic progress on North Korea, aid possible

A top US envoy ended a diplomatic shuttle through Asia yesterday, reporting no new initiative to defuse a nuclear crisis with isolated North Korea amid signs Washington wants to talk but only on its own terms.

Moving further away from the initial US hard line, the US ambassador to South Korea said his government was ready to go beyond food aid and to consider economic cooperation with North Korea to persuade it to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

Another diplomatic mission was being pursued by a Russian envoy who held talks with officials in Pyongyang in search of a solution to the crisis. A UN official has said millions of people in the impoverished communist state are short of food.

Ambassador Thomas Hubbard's remarks on a talk show yesterday on South Korea's KBS television were among the strongest signs yet that Washington has ditched a policy of refusing to reward bad behaviour by the North now that the standoff has become a distraction from a mission to disarm Iraq.

Hubbard made no reference to remarks late on Saturday by South Korean President-elect Roh Moo-hyun that he was relieved Washington had abandoned thoughts he said it had harboured last month of attacking the heavily armed communist North.

The impasse began in October when Washington said the North had admitted to a secret nuclear weapons programme. Pyongyang later kicked out UN nuclear inspectors, removed the seals from a mothballed reactor and pulled out of a global treaty preventing the spread of atomic arms.

As part of the flurry of diplomacy that has followed, US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly held talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi yesterday in Tokyo, the last stop on an Asian tour that included Seoul and Beijing, and made it clear that no big breakthrough was expected.

"I've had very interesting travels all week and that is what we did, was to exchange notes on this," Kelly said after meeting Kawaguchi.

"I want to mention that I didn't bring anything particularly new... what I did was go into a lot of detail."

Kelly was due to return to Washington early today.

Pyongyang has said it will talk only to the United States, and then only on certain conditions. The United States has moved away from its hardline "no talks" position by saying it, too, is open to dialogue but only if the North dismantles its nuclear programme.

US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told Japan's Kyodo news agency that Washington was considering a comprehensive deal with North Korea on its nuclear programmes, including a written assurance that it has no aggressive intentions.

"We would like to solve this problem... peacefully through diplomatic coordination," Hubbard said on KBS television. "The United States, as President (George W) Bush has said, is prepared to talk to North Korea."

Pyongyang's scrapping of its nuclear programme would be met in Washington by "a broad approach to North Korea that would entail in the final analysis some economic cooperation", he said.

"We're prepared to go beyond food aid," he said but stressed that North Korea's dismantling of its nuclear facilities was a precondition.

"We really do believe that it is incumbent upon North Korea to resume their commitments in a verifiable way," he said, adding that it was impossible for Washington to move on its bold approach to Pyongyang without resolution of the nuclear issue.

A crisis that has prompted frantic diplomacy around the world could not be solved by Washington alone, Hubbard said.

"We don't see North Korea as exclusively a US problem," he said, underscoring the need to work with allies and neighbours.

In Pyongyang, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov held talks with Vice Premier Jo Chang Dok, a day after meetings with Chinese officials in Beijing on how to proceed.

White House officials, meanwhile, said Bush had no plans to attack North Korea over its suspected nuclear activities, playing down remarks by South Korea's president-elect that an attack had been under consideration last month.

"The president has made it clear the United States has no intention of invading North Korea and he has indicated he wants to find a peaceful resolution to the current situation North Korea has brought upon itself," White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said on Saturday.

"During the (South Korean) elections, US hardline officials had talked about the possibility of a war," President-elect Roh told KBS television earlier on Saturday.

"Fortunately, opinion started to change toward resolving the conflict in a peaceful way," Roh said. "I don't think the US will be backtracking on this stance."

Roh said he expected Pyongyang to opt for security and aid rather than nuclear weapons.

Bush said in late December that "all options are always on the table for any president" but suggested that, unlike Iraq, force was not under consideration to deal with North Korea. A year ago, he bracketed Iraq, Iran and North Korea together in what he called an "axis of evil".

- REUTERS

Herald feature: North Korea