S. Korea, U.S. to discuss carrots and sticks for N. Korea

By Lee Chi-dong
PHUKET, Thailand, July 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan
and his American counterpart Hillary Clinton will discuss a "comprehensive
package" of incentives for North Korea in their meeting later Wednesday to
prepare for Pyongyang's decision to move towards denuclearization, an aide to the
minister said.

Yu and Clinton also plan to coordinate ways to impose U.N. sanctions on the
communist nation for its second nuclear test in May in what the allies describe
as a "two-track" strategy on Pyongyang, according to the South Korean foreign
ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young.
"The two sides will discuss a comprehensive approach towards the irreversible
dismantlement of North Korean nuclear program, breaking away from the practice of
partial and gradual negotiations in the denuclearization," Moon told reporters
ahead of the bilateral talks between Yu and Clinton to be held on the eve of the
ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) which also involves North Korea.
Seoul and Washington have agreed to the need for a new-type approach on the North
Korean nuclear ambitions, saying a set of short-term accomplishments by their
previous administrations in negotiations with the defiant North proved to be
"reversible."
The North has repeatedly taken provocative steps after receiving economic and
political rewards for its steps in stages of denuclearization, including the
disabling of its main plutonium-producing reactor in Yongbyon. The North
announced after a long-range rocket launch in April that it will restart the
reactor and abandon the six-way disarmament talks with South Korea, the U.S.,
China, Russia, and Japan.
South Korea and the U.S. say they will break the pattern by making the North take
"irreversible steps."
As North Korea appears to have refrained from taking additional provocative steps
in recent weeks, the Obama administration has begun to dangle carrots for the
North. Kurt Campbell, newly appointed assistant secretary of state for East Asia
and Pacific affairs, said Washington is ready to offer a "comprehensive package"
of incentives to the North.
"If North Korea is prepared to take serious and irreversible steps the U.S.,
South Korea, Japan, China and others will be able to put together a comprehensive
package that would be attractive to North Korea. But in this respect, North Korea
really has to take some of the first steps," he told reporters during his trip to
Seoul over the weekend.
South Korean officials said the package is only in its early stages and their
country and the U.S. will consult with the other members of the six-way talks on
the plan.
"The comprehensive package is still a concept, of which details should be worked
out through consultations among related nations," a senior South Korean foreign
ministry official said. "You will be able to expect much of what will be included
in the package if you look at North Korea's demands in the past negotiations.
Some new incentives will be included as well."
Ri Tong-il, director of the North Korean foreign ministry's disarmament
department, gave no answer when reporters briefly encountered him and questioned
his position on the push for the comprehensive package of incentives. He is on a
visit here as a member of the North's delegation to the ARF.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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