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U.S. Senate Demands New North Korea Envoy
The U.S. Senate yesterday voiced disapproval over the Bush administration’s North Korea policy by asking that the top U.S. envoy to nuclear talks be replaced, Reuters reported (see GSN, June 19). A defense authorization bill amendment sponsored by Senate minority leader Harry Reid (Nev.), and Carl Levin (Mich.) and Joseph Biden (Del.), senior Democrats on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, carried the request for the appointment of a new senior envoy within 60 days after the bill becomes law. The amendment is pending approval by the House of Representatives. “It says we are not confident in the direction of U.S. policy,” a Democratic Senate staff member told Reuters. “It reflects the frustration of five years of Bush’s neglect of the North Korea problem, during which the North expanded its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs,” said the staff member (Reuters, June 22). Meanwhile, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick called on China and South Korea to make a greater effort to persuade North Korea to end its nuclear weapons effort, Agence France-Presse reported today. Without a “very strong effort” by Beijing and Seoul, the suspended multilateral negotiations on the issue are likely to fail, Zoellick told the Sydney Morning Herald. “To make it work, you’ve got to get some very strong effort by China and South Korea,” he said. “The South Koreans can’t just see their role as offering concessions every time the North Koreans engage in bad behavior,” he said. “China is going to have to also recognize the risks of maintaining the current status quo,” he added (Agence France-Presse/DefenseNews.com, June 23).
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