U.S., South Korea to press Pyongyang on nuclear program

SEOUL, South Korea -- A U.S. envoy on Saturday urged North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, warning there will be no easy way out for the recalcitrant communist regime.

Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, speaking after meetings with Chinese and South Korean officials, said Washington will lead a global campaign to bring "maximum international pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons ambition."

South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun was visiting Pyongyang, where he said he would urge North Korea to realize the international furor over its clandestine nuclear program.

It is of paramount importance for the North "to wisely resolve the concern recently raised," Jeong said in a speech during a dinner hosted by North Korean Prime Minister Hong Song Nam, according to pool reports from Pyongyang. Official talks begin today.

Dialogue or confrontation

On Wednesday, Washington said North Korea admitted having a nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994 agreement the two countries signed in Geneva. The admission came at Oct. 3-5 talks in Pyongyang, when Kelly confronted his North Korean counterparts with evidence of a program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

Both Koreas had agreed earlier to use the latest round of Cabinet-level talks to promote reconciliation on the divided Korean peninsula. Now Jeong says his most urgent task will be to gauge whether the North wants dialogue or confrontation.

Kelly said the Bush administration will not follow the diplomatic course that produced the 1994 agreement. Under that accord, North Korea pledged to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in return for construction of two light-water reactors. As part of the deal, the United States also provides North Korea with 500,000 tons of heating oil annually.

Critics have often said the 1994 deal coddled the Stalinist regime -- a perception strengthened by the revelation that North Korea has been flouting that accord for years.

"This is not a replay of 1993 and 1994," Kelly said at a news conference after meeting South Korean Foreign Minister Choi Sung-hong.

Kelly flew to South Korea early Saturday from Beijing, where he and U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton met Chinese officials, who Kelly said "made it very clear that they strongly oppose any nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula."

Kelly planned to travel to Japan today to continue consultations.

Kelly said that the isolated, impoverished North's best way to resume dialogue with Washington to improve ties and win badly needed aid was first to give up its newly revealed nuclear program.

He said the new revelation made it impossible for Washington to engage the North with dialogue.

Kelly said no deadline or timetable had been set in the campaign to pressure North Korea to abandon its covert nuclear program, as the United States is focused now on consultations with allies.

In Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda and Kelly will discuss temporarily stopping construction of light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea, Japan's largest daily, the Yomiuri, reported Saturday, citing unidentified government sources.

When asked whether he discussed scrapping the 1994 deal with South Korean officials, Kelly said: "No decisions have been made on any next steps."

South Korea says dialogue is the best way to deal with concerns about North Korea. News of North Korea's nuclear program threw the South's so-called "sunshine" policy of engagement into disarray.

South Korea and Japan, the chief U.S. allies in Northeast Asia, are most vulnerable to North Korea's arsenal of missiles, chemical and biological weapons and now, possibly, nuclear bombs.