Global Security Newswire

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said Saturday that North Korea could receive aid if it gives up its nuclear weapons and joins Seoul in cutting back conventional armaments deployed at the two nations' border, Reuters reported (see GSN, Aug. 14).

"If the North and South reduce conventional weapons and troops, enormous resources will be freed up to improve the economies on both sides," Lee said during a speech.

Since become president in February of last year, Lee has held open the promise of major economic assistance for the North once it relinquishes its military nuclear capabilities. Pyongyang has regularly lashed out at the conservative leader. who halted no-strings-attached support for his nation's neighbor.

"Now is the time for the North and South to come to the table and talks about these issues," Lee said

(Jon Herskovitz, Reuters, Aug. 15).

"Nuclear weapons will not guarantee [North Korea's] security, but rather make its future more difficult," he added (Hyung-Jin Kim, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Aug. 15).

Tensions between the neighboring countries, which together field about 1 million troops along their shared border, have been especially high since the North walked out of six-party denuclearization talks in April and then tested another nuclear weapon in May. However, the North last week pardoned a South Korean prisoner, which analysts have pegged as a possible precursor to some form of diplomatic fence-mending.

The North also announced today that it plans to open up cross-border tourism and family visitations with the South -- a practice that had been suspended for a year and a half (Hyung-Jin Kim, Associated Press II/Google News, Aug. 17).

Lee said the two sides were due for a "candid dialogue" (Kim I, Associated Press).

The South Korean president followed up Saturday's speech by calling today for a "comprehensive, flexible, and consistent" North Korea policy aimed at bringing about nuclear disarmament, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

"We need to work hard through a not only consistent but also comprehensive, flexible policy against North Korea so that it may give up on its nuclear arms and step out into the international society," Lee said at a Cabinet meeting, according to presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan (Xinhua News Agency, Aug. 17).

Observers praised Lee's efforts to reach out to Pyongyang, although several noted that the sentiments expressed in the speech would not translate into diplomatic progress until South Korea revealed the details of its proposed aid package, the Korea Times reported yesterday.

"Lee's addressing the arms control issue in the speech was timely because the reduction of conventional weapons is as important as the dismantlement of nuclear stockpiles for peace building,'' said Ryoo Kihl-jae, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

However, Ryoo added that the speech would have been stronger had Lee mentioned specific incentives the South would offer in exchange for North Korean disarmament.

Others maintained that any negotiations between Seoul and Pyongyang would be undermined by a lack of trust between the neighbors, which are technically still at war.

South Korean analyst Cheong Seong-chang said that while "Lee showed he was willing to have dialogue with North Korea," the bulk of any nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang would probably be handled by the United States (Kang Hyun-kyung, Korea Times, Aug. 16).

China, whose policy toward North Korea is also expected to significantly influence Pyongyang's nuclear stance, was expected today to send its top nuclear envoy to Pyongyang to urge the regime to re-engage in denuclearization talks, Agence France-Presse reported. The talks involve China, Japan, Russia, the United States and both Koreas.

Nuclear negotiator Wu Dawei is scheduled to remain in the North Korean capital for a week, according to media reports (Agence France-Presse I/Google News, Aug. 17).

"Following Wu's visit, we may well see a sudden acceleration in the talks aimed at denuclearizing North Korea, since all partners ... seem geared toward reinitiating dialogue," said Baik Hak-soon, an analyst at South Korea's Sejong Institute.

"We are cautious not to keep our hopes too high, but the six-party talks will obviously be on Wu's agenda," Baik said (Kim Ji-hyun, Korea Herald, Aug. 18).

The United States on Friday said it would maintain its policy of strict sanctions against North Korea until its Stalinist regime returned to the negotiating table, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

"We are willing to engage North Korea, we are willing to talk to North Korea, but we will continue to use sanctions to enforce the U.N. Security Council resolutions and to have North Korea pay a significant price for its current intransigence," said U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley.

Crowley reaffirmed that Washington is open to bilateral talks with Pyongyang as long as they occur within the six-party framework (Hwang Doo-hyong, Yonhap News Agency, Aug. 15).

Meanwhile, Pyongyang today responded to news that the United States and South Korea would be conducting military drills again by warning that it would respond to any impingement on North Korean territory with nuclear war, AFP reported.

Pyongyang promised to return "even the slightest military provocation" with a "merciless and prompt annihilating strike at the aggressors," according to its main state-run media outlet (Agence France-Presse II/Google News, Aug. 16).

Seoul and Washington, which informed Pyongyang last month of the exercise set to begin today, said they were not planning any military incursions against North Korea (Agence France-Presse III/Google News, Aug. 16).