- SEOUL (Reuters) - A day after
North Korea urged talks with Washington to defuse a crisis over its nuclear
weapons program, the U.S. envoy to Seoul said on Tuesday Pyongyang had
lost all credibility and held out little hope for negotiations.
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- Ambassador Thomas Hubbard said, however, that Washington
sought a peaceful solution to the crisis, and would rely on diplomatic
pressure to persuade the communist state to scrap the secret uranium reprocessing
program it confessed to this month in the face of U.S. evidence.
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- "We have very little basis for trust in North Korea,
very little basis for confidence that further dialogue will lead to a solution,"
Hubbard told a breakfast meeting in Seoul.
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- The bombshell admission, disclosed by the United States
last week, puts North Korea in violation of at least four international
commitments, including a 1994 "Agreed Framework" with the United
States, which averted an earlier nuclear crisis.
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- Hubbard, who was closely involved in the negotiations
leading to the 1994 pact that froze the North's previous attempt to build
nuclear weapons, said Pyongyang was mistaken if it thought the new arms
scheme would win it concessions.
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- "They are wrong if they think that development of
nuclear weapons is the way to build a better life for their people or build
a better place for North Korea in the world community."
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- BUSH EYES DIALOGUE
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- Hubbard underscored that Washington sought a peaceful
resolution of the problem and that there was no "cookie cutter approach"
to Iraq, North Korea and Iran, the states Bush labeled an "axis of
evil" for seeking weapons of mass destruction.
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- "I don't hear any dissent in Washington from the
president's view that we want to pursue the North Korean problem peacefully
and that we have no intention of taking military action," he said.
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- In Washington, President Bush told reporters it was his
aim to persuade North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program.
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- "I view this as an opportunity to work with our
friends in the region and work with other countries in the region to ally
against the proliferation of serious weapons and to convince (North Korean
leader) Kim Jong-il that he must disarm," he said.
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- But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer earlier showed
little enthusiasm for North Korea's desire for talks.
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- "North Korea has put itself in position where most
nations around the world have not wanted much to do with (it) because of
North Korea's actions and history," he said.
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- On Monday, North Korea's number two leader, Kim Yong-nam,
told the South's visiting Unification Minister, Jeong Se-hyun, that the
communist state was ready for dialogue.
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- "If the United States is prepared to abandon its
hostile policy toward us, we are ready for dialogue to resolve security
issues of concern," pool reports quoted him as saying.
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- Jeong's delegation in Pyongyang was set to conclude four-day
ministerial talks, which were scheduled before last week's revelation of
North Korea's arms nuclear program to discuss economic ties, but have had
to grapple with the new problem.
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- Bush came to office voicing doubts that North Korea could
be trusted to honor weapons agreements and further embittered Pyongyang
with the "axis of evil" remark earlier this year.
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- The first high-level visit to Pyongyang by a Bush administration
official produced the North Korean admission that it was running a clandestine
nuclear program in violation of the Agreed Framework, the centerpiece of
U.S.-North Korea ties.
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- KEDO FATE UNDECIDED
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- Asked if he thought the Agreed Framework was dead, Hubbard
repeated Secretary of State Colin Powell's remarks on Sunday that "it
looks like it's nullified" by Pyongyang's admissions.
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- Under the 1994 Framework, North Korea pledged to freeze
the operation and construction of graphite nuclear reactors suspected of
being part of a covert weapons program.
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- In exchange, the United States agreed to ship 500,000
tons of fuel oil annually to North Korea and help it build two more proliferation-proof
"light water" nuclear power reactors.
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- Hubbard said the United States and its allies had made
no decision yet on the work of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development
Organization (KEDO), a multinational consortium which is constructing the
reactors.
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- "Only KEDO can decide where to go from here,"
he said.
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- A South Korean official at KEDO told Reuters on Monday
that the nuclear revelations had had no impact so far on fuel oil shipments
already in the pipeline or on working-level meetings and training programs
with North Korea.
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- The European Union said on Monday, however, that it would
review its involvement in KEDO in light of the revelations.
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- "It is difficult in present circumstances to see
how we can continue with our contributions to KEDO," European Commissioner
for External Relations Chris Patten told a news conference.
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- Patten said the EU would hold talks with senior U.S.
officials later in the week on the situation in North Korea.
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- Apart from the EU, Japan, the United States and South
Korea have also provided funds for the $4.6 billion KEDO project.
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