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White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs condemned North Korea for acts of heightening tension, including its threat to withdraw from the six-party nuclear talks. But he added, "The United States is prepared to work with North Korea and its neighbors through the six-party process to reduce tensions and achieve the elimination of nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula."
The White House had made little mention the North Korean issues except right after its launch of a long-range rocket last week, leaving them to the State Department. Gibbs' statement indicates the Barack Obama administration has begun to realize the seriousness of North Korean issues because of the North's threat to withdraw from the talks and order to the nuclear disablement team to leave. That suggests the U.S. is adopting a dual strategy of carrot and stick toward the North.
Stephen Bosworth, the special U.S. envoy on North Korea, again expressed hopes of direct talks with the North when he met with a Japanese politician on Tuesday.
The U.S. wants an early resumption of the six-party talks, because it would have to bear all burden unless it pursues the six-party talks in tandem with bilateral talks. The Obama administration apparently wants to ask China, the chair of the talks, to persuade the North.
But Michael Finnegan, a former Korea desk chief at the Pentagon, speculated that North Korea is no longer interested in the six-party talks and only wants to get what it can from bilateral talks, much in the way it did during the Clinton administration.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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