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Prof. Kim Seung-hwan (second right) of Myongji University and Joseph DeTrani (third right), the U.S. Department of State's Special Envoy for North Korea listen to a debate on the second day of a seminar on "The Prospects of U.S. Policy toward Korea - in the Second Bush Administration" organized by the Chosun Ilbo and the U.S. Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) in Washington on Wednesday.
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WASHINGTON -- U.S. Special Envoy for North Korea Joseph DiTrani on Wednesday rehearsed a U.S. threat of ¡°other options¡± if North Korea keeps boycotting six-party talks on its nuclear program but repeated Washington had set no deadline.
But in a session on the second day of "Prospects for U.S. Policy toward the Korean Peninsula - in the Second Bush Administration", a seminar jointly sponsored by the Chosun Ilbo and the U.S. Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), DiTrani said Washington now wants to include a whole basket of issues in the discussions if it is to normalize relations with Pyongyang, including human rights, drug trafficking, counterfeiting and missiles. However, he said his government did not expect these matters to be completely resolved as a precondition for talks.
Cho Tae-yong, the head of the Korean Foreign Ministry's task force on the nuclear dispute, said it appeared Pyongyang abandoned the strategic ambiguity in nuclear matters that it maintained over the last 10 years. He warned South Korea and the U.S. must not accept a nuclear-armed North Korea, nor can they assent to turning the six-party talks into mutual disarmament talks, as Pyongyang is demanding.
However, Cho admitted the six-party format could do with improvement, suggesting as a benchmark talks on Iran¡¯s nuclear program that involve Germany, France and the UK. He warned North Korea of ¡°serious results¡± if it tests a nuclear device.
The U.S. State Department¡¯s Intelligence and Research Bureau Northeast Asia chief John Merrill turned to the internal North Korean situation, saying it was becoming clear that Kim Jong-il was emancipating himself politically from his father Kim Il-sung. As evidence he cited an increase in North Korean propaganda extolling Kim the younger¡¯s accomplishments rather than attributing them to his late father.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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