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Seoul and Washington agreed Saturday to try to persuade North Korea through China to return to six-party talks it has announced it is boycotting. After Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon met with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney in Washington, Ban told reporters the two sides harmonized their understanding of the North Korean announcement and agreed an initial response in exchanges with high-ranking officials from the White House, State Department and Defense Department.
In what amounted to a passing of the buck to Beijing, Ban said the two countries agreed that China should step up efforts to persuade North Korea back to the negotiating table. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a Saturday night telephone conversation that China will work toward restarting the talks as soon as possible.
As the host of the six-party talks, China has consistently stressed the principle of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula. In response to Pyongyang¡¯s announcement last week that it already has atomic weapons, Beijing reiterated that the problem must be solved through the six-party talk mechanism. China¡¯s state-run media has been strongly critical of the country¡¯s Stalinist ally, implying that Pyongyang¡¯s statement created an unsettled atmosphere.
China could in theory exert pressure through the humanitarian food and energy aid it provides. It supplied North Korea with 206,492 tons of food and 972,157 tons of energy aid last year. But cutting it off could be a dangerous gamble and further inflame an already paranoid Pyongyang. The U.S. has repeatedly asked China to stop the aid, and Beijing has consistently refused. Instead, it is likely to ease up on economic exchanges with North Korea and attempt to persuade Pyongyang by dispatching high-ranking officials there.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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