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Bush, Roh to Meet in Washington Tomorrow to Discuss North Korea Nuclear Standoff
South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush are set to meet in Washington tomorrow to discuss the nuclear standoff with North Korea, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, June 8). Roh intends to emphasize that Seoul believes any military option is “unacceptable,” according to South Korean officials. He also plans to offer assurances that Seoul will, if necessary, support tougher U.S. measures — including support for referring North Korea to the U.N. Security Council — to pressure Pyongyang to resume disarmament talks. “If we try every diplomatic path possible and nothing works, we are prepared to support anything up to the point of a military response,” said a South Korean source. “We will tell the Americans that.” The overriding purpose of the summit, though, was to make a gesture of unity at a time when relations between the two countries have become tense, according to officials in Seoul. Washington’s close alliance with Tokyo has prompted Roh to present a new role for South Korea as a “balancer” between the two powers, according to the Post. South Korean officials have since characterized Roh’s statement as South Korean unease over rising nationalism in Japan, but many experts continue to see Roh’s vision as one for a more independent relationship with Washington. South Korea is also expected to hold Cabinet-level talks with the North a week after tomorrow’s meeting, Roh said this week (Faiola/Cho, Washington Post, June 9). Meanwhile, a top North Korean official said yesterday that his country was building more nuclear bombs, the Associated Press reported. Asked by ABC News if North Korea was manufacturing more missiles, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan said, “Yes.” “As for specifically how many we have, that is a secret,” he said. Kim also implied the North was able to mount nuclear warheads on missiles. “Our scientists have the knowledge, comparable to other scientists around the world,” he said (Burt Herman, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 9). U.S. President George W. Bush suggested yesterday that he hopes China would press harder for Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program, AP reported. “China has been at the table,” Bush said in an interview on Fox News. “Can they do more at a different time frame than we’re interested in? Perhaps. But the relationship is such that I’m able to explain to Hu Jintao, my counterpart, that, you know, keep the pressure on” (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 9).
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