US calls for inter-Korean rapprochement before 6-way talks resumption

WASHINGTON -- The United States on Wednesday urged North Korea to improve ties with South Korea before any reopening of the multilateral denuclearization-for-aid talks, which have been deadlocked for more than two years due to the North's provocations.

"We recognize and believe that the essential first step in any process of re-engagement with North Korea requires a true and significant North-South dialogue," Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs, said at a press briefing at the Foreign Press Center.

North Korea has made a series of peace overtures in recent weeks after torpedoing a South Korean warship and shelling a South Korean border island last year, which killed a combined 50 people, including two civilians.

Pyongyang early this month called for working-level military talks to prepare for a higher-level military dialogue over the Cheonan's sinking and the artillery attack of Yeonpyeong Island, and Seoul agreed to talks at the truce village of Panmunjom on Feb. 8.

South Korea also proposed a separate meeting to gauge North Korea's sincerity in its commitment for nuclear dismantlement before the resumption of the six-party nuclear talks, which have been in lull over the North's missile and nuclear tests and other provocations.

"We welcome a resumption of dialogue," Campbell said. "We are in close consultations with our South Korean allies and friends. We stand with them in wanting to see from North Korea a sincere commitment to a variety of steps, including renunciation of the provocative actions of the last half-year; a commitment to take the appropriate steps that will allow the six-party talks to resume; and other signals of a desire to work more closely with the South Koreans."

South Korean officials recently softened their attitude, and said a North Korean apology for the Cheonan's sinking and the artillery attack on Yeonpyeong is not a precondition for the resumption of the six-party talks.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, however, last week called on the U.N. Security Council to discuss the uranium enrichment program that Pyongyang revealed to a U.S. scientist in November. The disclosure triggered concerns that it could serve as a second way of building nuclear bombs in addition to its existing plutonium program. Pyongyang claims it is producing uranium fuel for power generation.

Campbell said Washington is "working closely with our allies and friends in terms of the appropriate venue to press our case" on the North's uranium program.

"We believe that the international community and our key partners and allies have been very clear that any uranium-enrichment program or any other kind of nuclear program, for that matter, that is being undertaken by the North Koreans is in violation of its commitments and obligations, including the 2005 joint communique, U.N. Security Council provisions, and other international acts," he said.

Campbell noted the joint statement in which U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao "expressed concern" over North Korea's "claimed uranium enrichment program."

"China has stated very clearly its concern associated with an element of North Korea's provocative behavior, namely the uranium-enrichment program," he said. "We were pleased by some of the interactions that we had with Chinese friends. But it is still at the beginning stages. And we will continue to build on that."

China, North Korea's staunchest communist ally, had been reluctant to acknowledge the existence of a uranium program in North Korea, citing a lack of first-hand information.

China wants an early resumption of six-party talks without any conditions attached.

Beijing, which has veto power at the U.N. Security Council, greatly diluted a council statement on the Cheonan's sinking -- blamed on North Korea by an international investigation team -- and has not yet denounced Pyongyang for the sinking and the artillery attack on Yeonpyeong.

Campbell, meanwhile, reiterated that Washington does not have any immediate plans for food aid to North Korea despite reports of the impoverished communist state suffering from severe food shortages due to poor harvests and management failure.

"The United States continues to monitor the humanitarian situation in North Korea but has no plans for any contributions at this time," he said.

Reports said that North Korea recently asked for food aid through the North Korean mission in the United Nations in New York.

U.S. food aid to the North was suspended in early 2009 amid heightened tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests and controversy over the transparency of food distribution.

Food aid was suspended in 2009 when North Korea refused to issue visas to Korean-speaking monitors, whose mission was to assure that the food was not funneled to the military and government elite.

Speaking at a separate press briefing, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley talked about the need to secure transparency in the distribution of food aid in North Korea.

"We don't have any aid going into North Korea right now, but we've put conditions on our assistance to all countries," he said. "When we do provide food aid to North Korea ... if we are concerned that food aid is being diverted from the North Korean people to the government, we are prepared to cut off aid."

The U.S. has provided more than 2 million tons of food aid to the North over the past decade.

Most recently, Washington pledged to provide 500,000 tons of food to the North in 2008 but delivered just 169,000 tons from May 2008 to March 2009.

International relief organizations suspended humanitarian food aid to North Korea in early 2009 as the North Korean government expelled international monitors amid escalating tensions over its rocket test launch and an ensuing nuclear test, the second after one in 2006.

The conservative South Korean government of Lee Myung-bak has also stopped shipping food to the North, demanding as a quid pro quo that the North make progress in the six-nation nuclear talks. Lee's liberal predecessors had each year shipped about 400,000 tons of food and as much fertilizer to North Korea without conditions.

Relief organizations have said that North Korea will need about 1 million tons of food from abroad to feed its 24 million people every year amid reports that thousands have starved to death this winter. (Yonhap)