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The Korean and U.S. governments have decided to apply stronger diplomatic pressure on North Korea to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks amid fears of an imminent nuclear test.
"If North Korea goes through with a nuclear test, it will start along a road where the future cannot be guaranteed,”± Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said in a debate of the 21st Century North East Asian Future Forum on Monday. "We warn that for the sake of North Korea's future, too, [a nuclear test] would be going down a wrong path."
A government official said the patience of the international community with North Korea was reaching its limit. ”°We will use U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill's visit to Korea, China and Japan as an opportunity to convey to North Korea through China the message that if things stay as they are, we'll have no choice but to take other, stronger diplomatic steps."
Seoul has so far only urged Pyongyang to quickly return to talks, but has now joined Washington in threatening to get tough if the reclusive country fails to come back to the negotiating table. "The time is approaching when we'll have to evaluate whether our efforts to restart the talks have been of benefit,”± the official warned.
The foreign minister and Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon met with Hill, who is on a visit to Korea, and agreed to the new direction. Hill later said the two sides agreed on ”°the best strategy”± for resolving the North Korean nuclear issue.
The U.S, has been threatening ”°other means”± of pressure on North Korea if it continues to boycott the talks, including taking the matter to the U.N. Security Council.
However, Ban stressed that reports North Korea might be preparing for a nuclear test were unconfirmed, and a Foreign Ministry official said, "The reports talk of only the possibility of a test."
Meanwhile, North Korea assumed a fighting stance on Monday. "If the U.S. wants to drag the nuclear issue before the UN Security Council, let it go ahead," a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a discussion with the country's state-run Korea Central News Agency. "We will consider [U.S.] economic sanctions a declaration of war."
(Kwon Dae-yeol, dykwon@chosun.com )
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