S. Korea softens stance prior to nuclear summit

S. Korea softens stance prior to nuclear summit

By Zeno Park

SEOUL (AFP): South Korea, to the dismay of Washington, appears to be softening its stance on the North Korean nuclear standoff to help ensure the success of an unprecedented inter-Korean summit, analysts here said Tuesday.

Supporting that assessment, Unification Minister Lee Hong-Koo told the National Assembly that South Korea was seeking a "political solution" to resolve the issue of verifying Pyongyang's possible diversion of plutonium for weapons.

Lee's statement, made behind closed doors overnight but leaked to the local press, was seen here as proof that Seoul was putting the issue of North Korea's past nuclear activity on the back burner to ensure the summit goes ahead and is successful.

"The (Seoul) government now seems to be in favor of a phased solution to the nuclear issue, in which the North freezes its current and future nuclear programs in the first stage and clarifies its past at a later stage," an unidentified legislator told Joong-Ang Daily News.

This policy would represent a major departure from South Korea's past position that the amount of plutonium North Korea had diverted for possible weapons must be known before Washington resumed high-level talks with Pyongyang.

The White House has said it was ready to hold a third round of talks with North Korean on nuclear issues and bilateral relations only if it froze its nuclear program.

To hold the talks, the United States also needs North Korea's agreement not to desist from reprocessing spent fuel from a five- megawatt reactor and refueling the reactor, as well as keeping international inspectors and safeguards in place, Assistant Secretary of State Robert Gallucci said.

Lee, who is a deputy prime minister, also said that while pushing for the inter-Korean summit, Seoul would not insist on first outlining a detailed agenda, saying that past attempts at summits had invariably collapsed due to agenda differences.

In the past, Seoul had demanded North Korea's nuclear transparency as a pre-condition to the meeting, while Pyongyang wanted to discuss the withdrawal of the 37,000 U.S. troops stationed in the South.

The South's decision not to hold to the nuclear issue as a pre-condition to the summit was in response to North Korean President Kim Il-Sung's proposal last week that the two leaders "unconditionally meet at any place, at any time."

On Monday, South Korea asked the North for talks on June 28 to work out details of the summit.

The idea for the meeting was conveyed by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, who brokered the meeting to help to resolve the crisis over North Korea's suspected nuclear arms development program.

Kim Il-Sung also promised Carter that he would freeze the North's current nuclear program and allow two International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to stay in the North.

Analysts here said the sudden softening of South Korea's position on the nuclear issue was bound to irk Washington and Tokyo, which were still seeking to verify Kim Il-Sung's proposals through diplomatic channels.

"The United States has long been irritated by the lack of clarity (in South Korea's policy over the nuclear issue), alternating between a soft and hard line, and I think the United States is now thinking, 'here they go again on the soft line'," one analyst said.

Reports from Tokyo said Japanese Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata was expected to call on South Korea to continue its efforts to look into North Korea's nuclear past to learn how much plutonium was diverted.

Foreign ministry officials here said Japan and South Korea had agreed on the necessity of a Hata-Kim Young-Sam meeting, but details, including the date and venue, had not yet been fixed.