By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
U.S. Republican presidential nominee John McCain will a pursue tougher policy toward North Korea than that of the incumbent Bush administration if he becomes the occupant of the White House, a report said.
Radio Free Asia (RFA), a U.S.-funded private radio station, Saturday quoted the Republican Party's draft policy on North Korea as saying that McCain will demand complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantlement (CVID) of its nuclear weapons program.
The inclusion of the term ``CVID'' in the party's draft on North Korea policy reflects a more hawkish approach toward resolving the North's nuclear issue, the report said.
The Bush administration, which once labeled Pyongyang as an ``axis of evil,'' also used the expression of ``CVID,'' but it has not used the term since direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang resumed early last year.
David Straub, former director of the office of Korean affairs at the U.S. State Department, said that McCain is not satisfied with Bush's approach toward the communist state, which conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, and that he would seek to restore a tougher policy platform, according to the report.
The Republicans' policy draft also calls for a stronger alliance with South Korea to confront the ``maniacal'' autocratic North, it said.
Some conservative think tanks home and abroad say North Korea may opt for testing more long-range missiles or conducting nuclear tests if the more hawkish Republicans come to power. The U.S. government could consider military options against North Korea then, such as surgical strikes on the North's key facilities, some believe.
Last week, North Korea announced it had suspended the disablement of its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, blaming the United States for failing to remove it from a terrorism blacklist.
The U.S. government remains firm that the North could be taken off the list after it accepts a stringent protocol to verify its nuclear declaration made in June.
The draft protocol suggested by the U.S. includes intrusive inspections of North Korean nuclear facilities, soil sampling, interviews with key scientists involved in the nuclear programs and a role for U.S. atomic experts in the verification process, according to diplomatic sources.
Under a denuclerarization-for-aid accord with the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia last year, North Korea promised to disable all of its nuclear facilities in return for economic and political incentives.
The removal from a U.S. list of state terrorism sponsors is a key part of the six-party agreement, as the blacklist has banned the North from receiving foreign aid and loans. Pyongyang was put on the list in 1998 after its agents blew up a South Korean passenger plane, killing all 115 people aboard.