North Korea suggested today it would not accept a "grand bargain" offered by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in hopes of persuading Pyongyang to give up its nuclear-weapon operations, Reuters reported (see GSN, Sept. 29).
(Sep. 30) -
North Korea today hinted it would turn down the call from South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, shown today, to eliminate its nuclear weapons program in exchange for a "grand bargain" of financial, political and security benefits (Kim Jae-hwan/Getty Images).
Lee's plan calls for placing economic, security and diplomatic incentives into a single package in order to end the existing logjam in the denuclearization process.
"In order for us to really accurately assess North Korea's true intent, that is the reason I proposed a grand bargain, whereby we will really have to deal with this in a one-shot deal and to try to bring about a fundamental resolution," Lee said last week while attending the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh.
The North appeared unmoved by the offer.
"The nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula should be settled between (North Korea) and the U.S. from every aspect as it is a product of the latter's hostile policy toward the former," according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency. "(South Korean officials) are seriously mistaken if they calculate the D.P.R.K. (North Korea) would accept the ridiculous 'proposal' for 'the normalization of relations' with someone and for some sort of 'economic aid.'"
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, however, expressed support for the offer.
"What we all agree is that we've lived through the history before of partial measures and reversible measures," he said today in Seoul. "What we need is a comprehensive and definitive resolution of the nuclear question."
Steinberg reaffirmed the Obama administration's readiness to conduct direct talks with Pyongyang in order to move toward resumption of the six-nation nuclear talks that also involve China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. The process stalled last year after a period of progress and appeared dead this spring as the North conducted a second nuclear test, fired a rocket and several missiles, and said it was nearing the capability to enrich uranium.
North Korean leaders have "certainly given some indication that they understand the value of re-engagement and we would like to see them take advantage of that," the U.S. diplomat said (Jack Kim, Reuters, Sept. 30).
"There's a tremendous opportunity now for them to take constructive measures," Steinberg added (Hyung-Jin Kim, Associated Press/Time, Sept. 30).
Meanwhile, the regime in Pyongyang appears to be focused on developing "asymmetric" systems, such as missiles and cyber warfare, to counter the threat of conventional military force from the United States and South Korea, Gen. Walter Sharp, head of U.S. forces in South Korea, said yesterday.
"I think the North Koreans probably realized they could not win in a normal conventional all-out attack," Sharp said (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, Sept. 29).
The U.S. special envoy for North Korea said, though, that "there is no military solution" to the nuclear standoff, the Yonhap News Agency reported today.
"Containment does not give long-term results. Negotiations are the way forward," Stephen Bosworth said in an interview posted on the Web site of the East Asia Forum (Yonhap News Agency, Sept. 30).