Obama to discuss N. Korean nukes at next week's G-8 summit: White House

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, May 20 (Yonhap) -- North Korea will be high on the agenda next week when U.S. President Barack Obama attends a meeting of leaders from eight advanced economies, the White House said Friday.
"The G-8 leaders will talk about a range of political and security issues," Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser, said in a conference call. "Traditionally this has included everything from nonproliferation, North Korea, Iran, terrorism, drug trafficking, piracy. This year there will also be an extensive discussion of developments in the Middle East and North Africa as well."
Obama will attend the G-8 summit in Deauville, France, late next week as part of a weeklong European tour that will also bring him to Ireland, Britain and Poland. The G-8 countries are the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is currently on a tour of northeastern part of China, the third visit of its kind within a year, apparently to seek economic cooperation and China's support for the third-generation power transition to his youngest son, Jong-un.
The 28-year-old heir apparent was appointed last year to the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the North's ruling Workers' Party which oversees 1.2 million-strong military that is headed by Kim Jong-il.
International talks on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions have been in limbo for more than two years over U.N. sanctions imposed after the North's nuclear and missile tests and two deadly border attacks that killed 50 South Koreans last year.
South Korea has demanded North Korea's apology for the provocations before any resumption of the six-party talks involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia. Pyongyang denies involvement in the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, and claims the attack on Yeonpyeong Island was provoked by South Korea's artillery exercises near the sea border.
In an incremental approach toward the nuclear talks' resumption, South Korea and China recently called on North Korea to have a bilateral nuclear dialogue with South Korea and then another bilateral discussion with the U.S. ahead of any plenary session of the six-party talks. The North has not yet responded to the proposal.
China, North Korea's staunchest communist ally, early this week blocked the release of a U.N. report that alleges that North Korea has continued proliferating missiles and their parts to Iran and other countries in violation of international sanctions. All 15 Security Council members need to sign it before its release.
Iran has denied the report, which alleged it received missile technology shipments from North Korea through a third country, which diplomats say is China. Tehran insists it has sufficient technology to develop missiles on its own.
Washington, meanwhile, is considering sending Robert King, U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, to Pyongyang on a fact-finding mission early next week to assess the food situation.
North Korea recently appealed to the U.S. and other countries for food aid, suspended two years ago over a lack of transparency in its distribution and over mounting tensions after the North's nuclear and missile tests.
The United Nations last month appealed for 430,000 tons of food for North Korea to feed 6 million people stricken by floods and severe winter weather. A U.N. monitoring team concluded a fact-finding mission in North Korea early last month.
South Korea appears to be less willing to resume food aid as critics say North Korea is exaggerating its food shortages to hoard food in preparation for the 100th anniversary of the birth of its late leader, Kim Il-sung, in April next year.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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