U.S. calls on N. Korea to take irreversible steps for denuclearization

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 (Yonhap) -- The United States Thursday reiterated its call on
North Korea to return to the six-party talks and take irreversible steps toward
its denuclearization, warning that the impoverished state will otherwise continue
to suffer sanctions.
"We are committed to the six-party framework ... we must see a commitment, and a
clear and firm commitment, from North Korea, backed up by irreversible steps,
that commitment to a nuclear-free North Korea," Kurt Campbell, assistant
secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told a forum at the Center
for Strategic and International Studies. "And we have other issues that we're
going to want to discuss associated with proliferation and the like."
North Korea demands that the U.S. deal with it bilaterally, while the U.S. says
it will undertake a two-way dialogue only within the six-nation framework.
The multilateral talks, involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and
Russia, have been stalled since international sanctions were slapped on North
Korea after its nuclear and missile tests in recent months.
The U.S. point man on North Korea, Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, embarked on a
weeklong three-nation Asian tour Wednesday to discuss ways to persuade North
Korea to return to the table.
Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy, will neither visit
Pyongyang nor contact North Korean officials, U.S. officials said.
Campbell said the Barack Obama administration will continue sanctioning North
Korea under U.N. resolutions unless the North returns to the nuclear talks and
take steps to end its nuclear programs.
"We've just come out of six or seven months of some severe provocations," he
said. "We continue to implement U.N. Resolution 1874. And I would just
underscore on that, despite some of this discussion about next steps in
discussion or dialogue, one of the most interesting things that has happened in
recent months is other countries, not just in Asia, but in the Middle East and
others, are beginning to take steps to implement 1874 and aspects of the PSI."
PSI refers to the Proliferation Security Initiative, a U.S.-led consortium of
countries aimed at checking proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. That
has been greatly buttressed by U.N. Resolution 1874, adopted after North Korea's
second nuclear test in May to allow interdiction of cargo on the high seas to
prevent weapons proliferation.
In the first seizure of a North Korean arms shipment under Resolution 1874, the
United Arab Emirates recently held a Bahamas-flagged ship carrying North Korean
rocket-propelled grenades and other conventional weapons labeled as machine
parts.
India seized a North Korean ship off its coast in early August only to find no
weapons aboard.
In late June, a North Korean cargo ship, possibly on its way to Myanmar, returned
home after being dogged by U.S. Navy vessels.
Campbell said he appreciates international cooperation in implementing the
resolution.
"I think that is an indication that it's not just in the United States and
countries in Asia, but countries in the Middle East and elsewhere that appreciate
and understand that some of these provocative steps, transfers of dangerous
technologies, are not only bad for countries in the region, but also globally,"
he said.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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