By Reuben Staines
Staff Reporter



Condoleezza Rice U.S. Secretary of State

South Korea’s top negotiator for the North Korean nuclear talks Monday urged the United States and other participating nations to help relieve the security concerns and economic problems that are driving the communist nation’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
``North Korea has certain motives to try to possess nuclear weapons,’’ Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said in an interview with MBC radio. ``We need to help it to deal with these in other ways.’’

Providing aid to stabilize the regime and develop its economy could help the North to give up its nuclear programs, he said.

The comments came as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was set to arrive in Seoul today for consultations in preparation for a new round of six-party nuclear talks late this month.

Pyongyang announced on Saturday that it will return to the bargaining table during the week starting July 25, ending a 13-month boycott of the talks. The decision was made during a secretly arranged meeting between Christopher Hill, Washington’s chief delegate for the talks, and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan in Beijing earlier that day.

Rice and other U.S. officials have indicated that Washington will present essentially the same proposal at this month’s talks as the one that North Korea rejected at the last meeting back in June 2004.

``There is a proposal on the table,’’ Rice told reporters while in China on Sunday, adding that it included energy aid, a multilateral security guarantee and humanitarian assistance for the communist North.

Officials traveling with Rice said the North Korean vice foreign minister told Hill on Saturday Pyongyang will respond officially to the proposal when the talks convene.

However, Kim also noted that his government has already responded to Washington’s offer through its state-run media. The North’s Korean Central News Agency has frequently published reports rejecting the U.S. pitch.

Pyongyang watchers doubted whether the new talks will yield progress if the U.S. sticks with its old offer.

Sheen Seong-ho, professor at Seoul National University’s Graduate School of International Studies in Seoul, said South Korea will likely press Rice to show greater flexibility.

Seoul has promised to table its own ``important proposal’’ when the six nations convene. The as-yet-undisclosed scheme, which has been outlined privately to both Washington and Pyongyang, is believed to include large amounts of development aid for North Korea.

Sheen said South Korea might ask the U.S. to contribute to this plan as a ``token of goodwill’’ toward the North.

``But this is just South Korea trying really hard to fill the gap between North Korea and the U.S.,’’ he said. ``At the end of the day, the important thing is the U.S. position.’’

A South Korean official close to the nuclear talks rejected the suggestion that his government will be pushing for further concessions from Rice.

``The decision on the U.S. proposal is up to the U.S. government,’’ he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He admitted that Washington’s offer appears to have changed little from last year’s talks. ``But it has said it is prepared to have substantive discussions about that,’’ he added.

North Korea reiterated yesterday that it is willing to scrap its nuclear weapons program if the U.S. drops its ``hostile’’ policy toward the Pyongyang regime. ``We don’t need a single nuclear weapon if the U.S. nuclear threat against us is removed and its hostile policy aimed at bringing down our system is retracted,’’ the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North’s powerful Worker’s Party, said in a commentary.

Meanwhile, President Roh Moo-hyun will preside over a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) today to discuss the six-party talks and the direction inter-Korean relations, his spokesman said.

It will be the fourth time for Roh to preside over an NSC meeting since his inauguration in early 2003.

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, who concurrently serves as chairman of the NSC’s standing committee, was to convene a meeting of national security-related ministers prior to the meeting.

rjs@koreatimes.co.kr