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In line with a recent hardening of Seoul's rhetoric as six-party talks on North Korean nuclear disarmament continue to stall, the Foreign Ministry's North American affairs director said Friday his government was getting ready for the worst. "We are also keeping in mind a worst-case scenario where North Korea tries to earn the rewards for giving up its nuclear weapons while at the same time keeping the weapons," Kim Sook said during a seminar by the Korean Council on Foreign Relations. "The government is worried that North Korea is trying to have its cake and eat it, too."
Kim said some saw North Korean brinkmanship as a ploy to increase its bargaining power, "but in reality the situation is moving in a more serious direction."
He said the Bush administration founded its North Korea policies on a principle of "we won't be fooled again," therefore Washington would find it difficult to comply with calls for a more flexible approach to North Korea.
Meanwhile, U.S. President George W. Bush spoke by phone with Chinese President Hu Jintao about the North Korean nuclear dispute, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. Observers wonder if Washington asked Beijing to increase pressure on North Korea to return to ever more improbable six-party talks or whether Bush felt out Hu's position on referring the matter to the UN Security Council.
McClellan merely said the two leaders "reiterated their commitment to working together toward a nuclear-free peninsula while expressing concern about North Korea." He said, "I think all of us came together in the six-party talk process to work on our shared concern, which is North Korea's development of nuclear weapons... We hope North Korea will change their mind and come back to the talks."
President Bush also plans to discuss the issue when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday. Observers believe Washington may be preparing the diplomatic soil for a solution through the Security Council, where both China and Russia have a veto.
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