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North Korea-U.S. Ties Dwindle
U.S. programs to recover the remains of war casualties, provide food aid and build civilian nuclear power plants in North Korea have all been halted in the past eight months, USA Today reported (see GSN, Jan. 13). “The official U.S. connections have atrophied,” said Donald Gregg, U.S. ambassador to South Korea under President George H.W. Bush. North Korea requested an end to the U.N. World Food Program mission on Jan. 1, while the U.S. Defense Department in May suspended a program in which U.S. and North Korean soldiers searched for remains of U.S. servicemen from the Korean War. Dwindling contacts are another hurdle the countries must face in trying to resolve the nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula, according to USA Today. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the lead U.S. envoy to nuclear disarmament negotiations with Pyongyang, blamed North Korean leaders for the country’s isolation. Once Pyongyang understands “there’s no role for nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula, the sooner they will have a brighter future,” he said last week (Barbara Slavin, USA Today, Jan. 17). Meanwhile, North Korea today renewed its call on the United States to lift financial sanctions, Agence France-Presse reported. “If the U.S. truly wants to resume the six-party talks, it should lift, among other things, the sanctions against the D.P.R.K., the factor blocking the resumption of the talks,” the official Korean Central News Agency announced. U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow today asked Seoul to join the United States in demanding that Pyongyang end its illicit dealings. “All South Koreans should be worried about a regime that treats its own people so badly, that wastes its scarce resources on nuclear weapons, and that engages in counterfeiting, drug trafficking, money laundering and the export of dangerous military technologies in order to survive,” Vershbow said on the U.S. Embassy Web site (Agence France-Presse I, Jan. 17). North Korea yesterday demanded compensation from Washington for an aborted nuclear power plant project, the Associated Press reported. “The Bush administration carried out the act of discarding the official document between North Korea and the U.S. in a planned and systematic manner,” the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper stated. “The U.S. inflicted enormous political and economic losses upon us by completely stopping the construction of light-water reactors. ... We have a legitimate right to seek compensation for that,” it said (Associated Press/China Daily, Jan. 16). Elsewhere, China today refused to comment on reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is in Beijing for talks with President Hu Jintao, AFP reported. “You want me to confirm Kim’s visit but I cannot do that because I’m not authorized to provide any information on this question,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan. “As far as I know President Hu Jintao will meet foreign leaders today. ... I don’t know how many,” Kong said. “We can say that China every day is receiving many friends from foreign countries” (Agence France-Presse II, Jan. 17).
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