Campbell urges N. Korea to return to 6-party talks

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details, background throughout)
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, June 10 (Yonhap) -- U.S. Assistant Secretary of State-designate Kurt
Campbell urged North Korea Wednesday to return to the six-party talks on ending
its nuclear ambitions, saying Washington will not accept a nuclear North Korea.
"We've got to make clear to the North Koreans that should they decide to return
to the table for negotiations in a multilateral context, we'd be prepared to do
that," Campbell, the nominee for assistant secretary for East Asia and Pacific
affairs, said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee. "We've also been very clear that we cannot accept a nuclear North
Korea."
Campbell, chief executive officer and co-founder of the Center for a New American
Security (CNAS), an organization dedicated to advancing a strong, centrist
national security strategy, was nominated in April to replace Christopher Hill,
who was appointed as U.S. ambassador to Iraq.
Campbell's remarks come as the U.N. Security Council reviews a draft resolution
to impose an arms embargo and financial sanctions on North Korea for its recent
nuclear test. Adoption could come in a few days' time.
The draft also calls on the North to return to the six-party talks and refrain
from any further nuclear and ballistic missile tests.
Campbell, former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense, reaffirmed the U.S.
intention to defend South Korea and other allies against possible attacks from
nuclear-armed North Korea.
"I think it's extremely important that our allies and friends appreciate the
nature of the enduring American commitment to extended deterrence," he said.
"That is a foundation of our strategy. It will continue to be. And we need to
reassure and be very clear with our interlocutors in Japan and South Korea."
Extended deterrence is a euphemism for the threatened use of nuclear as well as
conventional weapons in defense of U.S. allies as if the U.S. itself were
attacked.
U.S. President Barack Obama will put the promise in writing in a joint statement
to be issued at the end of a summit meeting with South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak in Washington on June 16, according to South Korean officials.
Pyongyang's second nuclear test sparked heated debate in South Korea over the
possibility of starting its own nuclear weapons program, an effort that the U.S.
successfully thwarted in the 1970s when then-South Korean President Park
Chung-hee wanted to produce nuclear weapons.
Park feared a power vacuum on the Korean Peninsula after a decision by the U.S.
to withdraw troops.
The U.S. troop withdrawal under the Jimmy Carter administration followed a
doctrine by Richard Nixon in 1969 calling for Asian countries to defend
themselves on their own. The U.S. defeat and ensuing pullout from Vietnam in the
early 1970s also affected Seoul's bid to go nuclear.
Campbell also stressed the need for the U.S. and other nuclear powers to reduce
their nuclear arsenal to discourage nuclear proliferation.
"I think taking an active role in multilateral diplomacy and the nuclear
proliferation treaty going forward, making clear that we're taking steps to
attempt to diminish the role of nuclear weapons in global politics -- these are
all important steps, but at the heart of this is dealing with North Korea," he
said.
Obama has initiated disarmament talks with Russia aimed at reducing nuclear
weapons on each side to fewer than 2,000 from the current number of more than
6,000.
At issue is Moscow's demand that Washington scrap its plans to establish a
missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, which Russia says
focuses on Moscow, and whether to reduce missiles, bombers and other delivery
systems along with nuclear warheads.
Campbell described the North's recent provocations as "lousy options," adding,
"One of the things that we have to do going forward, given all that's transpired
over the course of the last couple of weeks, is still keep the door ajar."
Analysts attribute North Korea's recent provocations, including nuclear and
missile tests, to an attempt by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to help his
26-year-old son, Jong-un, consolidate power in the unprecedented third generation
dynastic power transfer in the reclusive communist state.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said Friday, "It may be premature to
say, but a variety of intelligence tells us that North Korea is in the process of
a power transition to Kim Jong-un."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week, "We don't yet know. We
would have to wait and evaluate it, the time of it, who might be essentially, you
know, put in place to supervise him, if he were the choice. We have to evaluate
all of that."
hdh@yna.co.kr
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