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President Roh Moo-hyun on Monday signaled a tougher line with North Korea over its reluctance to return to nuclear disarmament talks, saying there are times when Seoul needs to get "red in the face" with anger in its relationship with the Stalinist country. "In the intra-Korean relationship as well, we must express criticism and get red in the face when it's time to get red in the face," Roh said, quoting his own remarks during a trip to Washington last year, then directed at the U.S.
In a departure from what has been criticized as Seoul's softly-softly approach to its northern neighbor, Roh told Korean residents in Germany, "We can't accept everything North Korea is saying either." "One has to live up to what one agreed to and respect one another, but North Korea has unilaterally suspended dialogue," he added.
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President Roh Moo-hyun, on an official visit to Germany, speaks at a gathering of Korean residents in Berlin, on Monday evening.
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President Roh strongly criticized North Korean "unilateralism," bringing up how besides the NTP, Pyongyang had also unilaterally disregarded the 1991 Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula Agreement, suspended North-South dialogue citing Seoul's refusal to permit a mourning delegation to visit Pyongyang on the 10th anniversary of Kim Il-sung's death, and Kim Jong-il's failure to pay a return visit to Seoul as promised.
"We've confirmed many times that we are always open to talks, no matter how North Korea would like them to proceed. We set no preconditions," said the president. But he said a demand by the North for a record amount of fertilizer "would best be made through an official window of dialogue."
A high-ranking Cheong Wa Dae official explained Seoul "cannot agree to unofficial requests for fertilizer and rice while Pyongyang refuses to return to the six-party talks." He said South Korea would not break the ice first by sending a special envoy to the North.
On Friday, Roh told the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung it was "unreasonable to ask the U.S. to make any new concessions," and demanded that North Korea return to the six-party talks.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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