Angry rift between Seoul and Washington deepens
Angry rift between Seoul and Washington deepens
By Kate Webb
SEOUL (AFP): The rift between Seoul and Washington over how to tackle North Korea's suspect nuclear program deepened Tuesday with South Korea accusing the United States of rushing into an ill-considered accord with the North simply to pull off a diplomatic coup.
Newspapers here quoted unnamed officials as saying the angry accusations were spurred by Seoul's dismay at learning of the broad outline of an agreement Washington was considering presenting to North Korea at the negotiating table in Geneva.
In Seoul, U.S. Ambassador James Laney was called into the Foreign Office by Foreign Minister Han Sung-joo, their second meeting in two days, and informed of South Korean "concern" over the proposed agreement, officials said.
The Han-Laney meeting followed a top-level security meeting here and came after top presidential advisor on security, Chung Chong Wook, had telephoned his counterpart Anthony Lake to detail the differences, newspapers said.
Sources and newspapers said Seoul was unhappy over several points in the reported proposal.
The points of difference included special inspections of the North's suspect facilities, the proposed timing of the opening of liaison offices in each others' capitals, the resumption of an Inter-Korean dialogue and the type of nuclear reactor to be offered to Pyongyang.
"The United States is rushing for an agreement to score a diplomatic coup," the Joong-Ang daily quoted Chung as saying, as President Kim Young-sam's ruling party issued a statement backing his hardline stand.
The rift burst into the open Friday when New York Times and Japan's Asahi Shimbun published interviews with Kim in which he lambasted the United States for making too many compromises and called its negotiating posture "half-baked" and naive.
Embarrassment here Monday over the interviews turned to a united stand behind Kim Tuesday when his ruling party echoed his hardline criticism.
The party statement, announced by its spokesman Park Bum-jin after a meeting of key officials early Tuesday, called the U.S. negotiating stance "conciliatory" and said "preparedness for war is a must in negotiations with the communists."
"According to press reports on the Geneva talks, the United States appears to be going beyond its accords with South Korea," Park said.
"The accords call for pushing through special inspections of North Korean nuclear facilities so as to guarantee the North's transparency in its nuclear program, and for providing the North with a South Korean light water reactor."
In his interviews Kim was quoted as saying that no more compromises should be made with the North at a time when it was close to economic and political collapse.
The comments aroused consternation in the United States Sunday when U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher telephoned Han Sung-joo from Jerusalem to express his "concern."
Christopher later downplayed the disagreement, and said Seoul and Washington had no major differences in their positions on how to persuade the North to give up its suspect nuclear program.
The latest reports from Geneva have characterized the ongoing negotiations as "totally deadlocked" over two points -- the timing of special outside inspections of two nuclear sites and the refueling and restarting of a 5-megawatt reactor at the North's Yongbyong nuclear complex.
North Korea has for the past two months heaped invective on the South Korean president, blaming him for a crackdown on radicals and leftists in the South.
U.S. officials here confirmed that Laney had met with Han, but declined further comment, while palace officials said Kim had given yet another interview -- this time to Cable News Network (CNN) in which he would outline his views "without interpretation by the print media."