U.S.-S. Korea summit carries mixed messages on N. Korea

(ATTN: RECASTS lead, headline; ADDS comment by experts, background throughout;
RESTRUCTURES)
By Sam Kim
SEOUL, June 17 (Yonhap) -- The first-ever summit-level affirmation of the U.S.
nuclear umbrella over South Korea constitutes another "warning" to North Korea as
it presses ahead with its nuclear weapons development, a defense spokesman here
said Wednesday.
But experts said it may carry the risk of giving North Korea -- which conducted
its second nuclear test last month -- a signal that its self-declared status as a
nuclear weapons state is being taken more seriously than ever.
In a joint statement between the leaders of the two countries, the United States
pledged "the continuing commitment of extended deterrence, including the U.S.
nuclear umbrella," for South Korea.
Since 2006, South Korea has been under the deterrent, which guarantees the
deployment of strategic weapons, such as long-range bombers and ballistic
missiles, against North Korea if necessary.
Its key component is the U.S. nuclear umbrella over South Korea, which went
public in 1992, a year after the U.S. declared it had withdrawn its nuclear
weapons from the Korean Peninsula.
The first summit-level affirmation "should be seen as a warning to North Korea,"
Won Tae-jae, spokesman for South Korea's Ministry of National Defense, said in a
briefing.
The meeting between South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his U.S. counterpart
Barack Obama was their first since North Korea set off an underground nuclear
explosion on May 25.
The test -- the second since North Korea detonated its first nuclear device in
2006 -- has drawn U.N. sanctions and prompted Lee and Obama to issue the
reaffirmation of the U.S. nuclear umbrella over South Korea.
Lee and Obama joined each other in refusing to acknowledge North Korea as a
nuclear weapons state, but analysts here said the summit could play to the
benefit of the belligerent communist country.
"It has the risk of being portrayed as an indirect acknowledgement that North
Korea has nuclear arms," Kim Seong-joo, a political scientist at Seoul's
Sungkyunkwan University, said. "The more the allies step up their defensive
language, the easier it is for North Korea to support its claim as a nuclear
weapons state."
"The U.S. and South Korea are in a predicament." Ryu Gil-jae, professor at the
University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said. "They can't afford to do
nothing about North Korea continuing to test nuclear explosives. But they hate to
accept Pyongyang may have bombs."
Concerning the U.S. pledge to continue to extend its deterrent against North
Korea, Won told reporters that details have yet to be laid out.
"No theoretical agreement has been reached between Seoul and Washington" on the
extended deterrence, Won said, only describing the extended deterrence as "active
protection through the deployment of strategic weapons."
"Through regular meetings, South Korea and the United States will continue to
discuss what changes will be made and what significance (the reaffirmation of)
the U.S. extended deterrence has," he said.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against
North Korea -- a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce rather
than a peace treaty.
Challenging a U.N. Security Council resolution toughening sanctions on it, North
Korea said last week it will weaponize all new plutonium and start enriching
uranium -- a second track to developing a nuclear bomb.
South Korean defense officials believe North Korea has about 40 kilograms of
plutonium, enough to create at least six atomic bombs.
samkim@yna.co.kr
(END)