Global Security Newswire

South Korea and the United States both wish to see long-paralyzed multinational talks aimed at North Korea's permanent denuclearization quickly relaunched, the Yonhap News Agency reported on Thursday (see GSN, Jan. 5).

"What is the most important task at this moment is to send a clear and constant message to North Korea about what it should do to contribute to peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and the world and lead North Korea's new leadership to join efforts and cooperate to that effect," South Korean Ambassador to the United States Han Duck-soo told the wire service.

The Stalinist North is now being led by Kim Jong Un, the youngest son of recently deceased dictator Kim Jong Il. The son's young age and his scant military background have raised international concerns he might face domestic power challenges that could lead to a regime collapse and widespread instability in a country that houses several WMD programs.

At present, there are no discernible signs of instability in the isolated country, but Washington and Seoul are watching North Korea closely as the transition process unfolds.

Most foreign experts foresee Kim Jong Un continuing his father's longstanding militaristic policy.

"A reality is that it is difficult to predict North Korea's external policy," Han said.

He did not offer a guess on whether the Obama administration would hold an additional session of senior-level direct talks with North Korea this month, asserting instead that the matter was up to Pyongyang. Such talks would follow two 2011 meetings and would be likely to focus on reaching agreement on a process to relaunch denuclearization negotiations. 

"There are initial steps that North Korea is required to do by action before moving to the six-party talks," Han said in a reference to the moribund aid-for-denuclearization negotiations that encompass, China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the United States. 

The United States is looking for Pyongyang to strengthen its engagement with the South and to take concrete steps on nuclear disarmament before the six-party talks are renewed.

Han also indicated Seoul was likely to heighten sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear development work. "Internationally, the Iranian nuclear issue is as important as the North Korean nuclear one. It is unavoidable to some extent to join international efforts to toughen sanctions on Iran ... despite some pains" (Yonhap News Agency I/Korea Times, Jan. 5).

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom's top envoy in Seoul said nations near North Korea should not let fears about the leadership transition process in Pyongyang cause them to back off demands that it halt its nuclear programs.

"I think it's important that we all maintain pressure on the North Korean authorities to open up and certainly maintain pressure both on them and on those who have influence over the authorities in North Korea to lead to the restarting of the six-party talks process," British Ambassador to South Korea Scott Wightman told Yonhap.

There have also been concerns that Kim Jong Un would order new missile or nuclear tests, or other aggressive acts, as a means of demonstrating his authority.

"I think it's an open question whether they [the North Koreans] would want to pursue any provocation before the events in April, the hundredth anniversary of [regime founder] Kim Il Sung's birth," Wightman said.  "What's important for all of us, I think, is that we should be carefully prepared to deal with any particular developments and we can make our best guess about what's most likely to happen" (Kim/Lee, Yonhap News Agency II, Jan. 5).

The head of the United Nations on Wednesday said he was willing to visit North Korea "at an appropriate time" as part of efforts to encourage stability on the Korean Peninsula, Kyodo News reported.

"My general message has been that it is important to maintain peace and security on the Korean Peninsula," Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in an interview with Kyodo. "It is also very important that the countries of the six-party talks should address this North Korean nuclear issue so that the Korean Peninsula can be denuclearized" (Kyodo News, Jan. 5).

Pyongyang on Thursday blamed Seoul for the present poor state of inter-Korean relations and warned it would bolster its nuclear activities if it faced continuing provocations, Yonhap reported.

"As long as the enemy is persistent in his moves of aggression, the D.P.R.K. will further reinforce the position of the nuclear weapons state to protect its dignity and sovereignty," the North Korean Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement carried by state-controlled media (Yonhap News Agency III, Jan. 5).

Separately, unfounded reports of an atomic incident in North Korea caused the South Korean stock index to briefly plummet, Agence France-Presse reported on Friday.

The South Korean Financial Supervisory Service has requested authorities probe rumors of an explosion at the North's unfinished light-water reactor on the chance it was a stock scam.

"The rumors turned out to be absolutely groundless," a member of the financial watchdog said on Friday (Agence France-Presse, Jan. 6).

Elsewhere, Chinese social media websites carried unsubstantiated reports that a  military coup had toppled Kim Jong Un, though Chinese government censors moved quickly to delete the reports, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

The reports claimed North Korean soldiers had commandeered the nation's official television station and were moving to shut down the North's border with China (Chico Harlan, Washington Post, Jan. 5).