South to pressure NK to opt for denuclearization
By Yi Whan-woo
Yun Byung-se
South Korea will work closely with allies to increase pressure on North Korea to take steps toward denuclearization, said Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se on Wednesday.
Yun said that Seoul will diversify efforts to bring the North to the negotiation table next year by strengthening talks with the United States, China and Japan while working to revive the six-party talks.
The six-party talks, which also include Russia, have been dormant since 2008 because North Korea refuses to return to negotiations.
“We should make sure that the regime in Pyongyang realizes there are no options other than denuclearization to choose from,” Yun said during a panel discussion hosted by the Korea Broadcasting Journalists Club in downtown Seoul. “We should step up efforts to create circumstances in which North Korea will accept international demands on denuclearization just as Iran did.”
He said Seoul’s diplomatic relations with regional powers will be crucial to bringing Pyongyang back to the nuclear negotiations.
“Besides bilateral dialogue, we’ve been actively capitalizing on three-way talks, such as Seoul-Washington-Tokyo talks, and those have been the most important element of our diplomacy in Northeast Asia.
“We take various formats or methods into consideration and there will be much progress in our approach concerning Pyongyang’s nuclear issues,” Yun added.
Seoul’s top diplomat speculated that there will be repercussions to the Pyongyang-Beijing relations following cancellation of scheduled performances by North Korea’s Morangbong Band in China on Dec. 12.
It still remains unclear as to why the members of the all-female pop band, whom North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reputedly handpicked, called off their concerts in the Chinese capital after planning to perform there before high-ranking Chinese officials.
The plan was set up following signs of a thaw in bilateral relations since October.
“Such an impulsive measure brings many implications to inter-Korean ties as well,” Yun said.
He added that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will contribute to peace on the Korean Peninsula if he can visit North Korea next year.
Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, seeks to travel to Pyongyang amid growing U.N. pressure against the repressive regime for its development of weapons of mass destructions and its state-perpetrated human rights violations.