Neocon slogan on N. Korean nuke returns

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, June 25 (Yonhap) -- Borrowing a slogan often used by the George W. Bush
White House, South Korea and the U.S. now say they are seeking a "complete,
verifiable, irreversible dismantlement" (CVID) of North Korea's nuclear program.
Seoul's point man on North Korea, Hyun In-taek, used a slight variation of the
phrase when he stressed earlier this week that negotiations for a solution to the
North Korean nuclear problem "should pursue complete, verifiable, irreversible
denuclearization."
Speaking at a forum on North Korea at the National Assembly, the unification
minister said the principles of CVID are supported by U.N. Security Council
Resolution 1874, which was drafted by the U.S. and passed to punish the North for
its latest underground nuclear test.
It was unusual for a high-level South Korean government official to openly talk
about CVID, a concept that has angered its communist neighbor.
At a summit last week in Washington, the presidents of South Korea and the U.S.
made clear that they will no longer make concessions to the North for provocative
behavior.
"We will work together to achieve the complete and verifiable elimination of
North Korea's nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs, as well as ballistic
missile programs," South President Lee Myung-bak and his U.S. counterpart Barack
Obama said in their joint statement.
The term CVID became a shorthand for the hardline approach towards North Korea
pushed by hawkish officials, commonly referred to as neocons, in the early years
of the Bush administration. Pyongyang took great offense at the phrase, and the
liberal South Korean administration at the time was also reluctant to use the
expression.
Use of the term began to taper in late 2006, when the Bush administration
reversed its North Korean policy following Pyongyang's first nuclear test and a
major power shift in Washington that left the neocons with significantly less
power.
Christopher Hill, top nuclear negotiator during Bush's second term, instead
negotiated a deal on "disabling" the North's main plutonium-producing facilities
in Yongbyon in return for energy aid. While there was a dispute over the
definition of the word, many understood it as meaning a temporary step prior to
dismantling those facilities.
The reclusive state had been slowly disabling its nuclear facilities since July
2007 but is believed to have restarted them amid a renewed stand-off with
regional powers.
In its June 13 announcement following the U.N. Security Council's adoption of a
sanctions resolution, Pyongyang said it will "weaponize" all fresh plutonium it
extracts at Yonbyon, the site of North Korea's main nuclear installations.
"Disabling has proved to be reversible," a South Korean foreign ministry official
said. "Now, it (disabling) has become an obsolete word."
lcd@yna.co.kr
(END)