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Victor Cha, the White House's top adviser on North Korea who accompanied New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson on his visit to North Korea this month, delivered a "strong message" from U.S. President George W. Bush to North Korea and his presence ˇ°loomed largeˇ± there, AP reported on Sunday. The news agency said Cha had a series of private meetings with Kim Kye-gwan, the chief North Korean negotiator at the six-party talks, over the course of two days, and together with all 10 members of the U.S. delegation had more than 10 hours of discussions with North Korean officials. "Cha stressed the urgent need for the North to fulfill its pledge to begin dismantling its atomic program under a February agreement,ˇ± AP said.
The ostensible purpose of Richardson's visit to North Korea was to recover the remains of missing U.S. troops. But it was Cha who played the key role in talks with officials, and North Korea attached great significance to his visit, it reported. Bush sent the White House's top adviser to North Korea when an early April 14 implementation deadline set by the Feb. 13 nuclear disarmament agreement was imminent. AP said this shows how important a successful implementation of the agreement is to Bush.
Cha is adviser to Bush on security issues in Northeast Asia. A former professor at Georgetown University, he joined the White House after Bush's second term began. The Korean speaker will reportedly leave the White House to return to Georgetown University this summer.
Meanwhile, in an interview with ABC TV, Richardson said he was optimistic that North Korea would begin taking steps to implement the Feb. 13 agreement. While it was disappointing to see North Korea fail to keep the deadline, Richardson said, he believed the North Korean leadership had made a strategic decision to dismantle its nuclear program.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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