Opposition leader says ready to send special envoy to N. Korea

By Tony Chang
SEOUL, June 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's opposition leader said Monday he is
willing to send a special envoy to North Korea to help the two Koreas resume
dialogue over denuclearization and repair frayed relations.
Chung Sye-kyun, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), urged
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to give up nuclear weapons and military
adventurism and to return to dialogue with South Korea and the international
community. He also pressed for the release of a South Korean worker and two U.S.
journalists long detained in North Korea.
In a press conference held at the Seoul Foreign Correspondents' Club, Chung
called on U.S. President Barack Obama to resume government-level dialogue with
Pyongyang and pursue a comprehensive package deal for pending North Korea issues,
including a coordinated international effort to force the North to abandon its
nuclear weapons.
"The Democratic Party is ready to open talks with the administration of President
Lee Myung-bak on sending a special partisan delegation to North Korea," said
Chung.
"President Lee is required to send a special envoy with expertise on inter-Korean
relations in order to seek a package deal with North Korea, including the
resumption of inter-Korean talks," Chung said, calling on Lee to halt his
hard-line policy towards the North.
Tension on the Korean Peninsula has escalated since the North defiantly conducted
its second nuclear test on May 25 and test-fired long- and short-range missiles.
At a June 16 summit in Washington, Lee and Obama agreed in writing to extend the
U.S. nuclear umbrella over the Korean Peninsula, with Obama pledging to "pursue
denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula vigorously."
The two leaders also agreed to break from the pattern of awarding concessions to
North Korea for its provocations, prompting a warning from the communist North of
an armed clash on the Korean Peninsula.
The U.N. Security Council recently agreed on financial and diplomatic sanctions
against Pyongyang for its second nuclear test in defiance of a U.N. resolution
imposed after its first test in 2006.
"As far as the North Korea nuclear problem is concerned, the South Korea-U.S.
summit simply emphasized sanctions on the North, failing to produce any agreement
on a peaceful settlement. Lee's proposal for five-party talks on North Korea was
unrealistic. The written agreement on the U.S. nuclear umbrella for South Korea
is also feared to trigger proliferation in Northeast Asia," said the DP leader.
During their summit, Lee and Obama reportedly agreed on the concept of holding
five-party talks that exclude North Korea from the current six-party format. The
six-party talks, which involve the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia,
have stalled due to a dispute over how to verify North Korea's accounting of its
nuclear assets.
"More specifically, (the U.S. package deal for North Korea) should be a big and
bold deal that includes improvement of bilateral relations and assistance to the
North by the international community," Chung said.
The U.S., along with the other members of the six-party talks, has in the past
considered providing Pyongyang with a package of security guarantees, economic
aid and support for diplomatic normalization in return for suspension of its
nuclear weapons and long-range missile development.
"Clearly, the heart of a comprehensive solution to the North Korean nuclear issue
lies in the improvement of U.S.-North relations ... It is unrealistic to expect
that stronger sanctions alone will resolve the current problem," said the
opposition leader.
"The U.S. must take the lead in coming up with creative solutions that can
achieve North Korean denuclearization without aggravating the security situation
on the Korean Peninsula."
odissy@yna.co.kr
(END)