Clinton calls for inter-Korean rapprochement

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The United States and China Tuesday repeated calls for improved inter-Korean ties ahead of any resumption of the international talks on the North's nuclear dismantlement.

Speaking to reporters after a two-day Strategic and Economic Dialogue with China at Blair House, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "We had candid discussions on some of our most persistent challenges, from addressing North Korea and Iran to rebalancing the global economy."

She did not elaborate, but the State Department said in a statement that the sides "decided to enhance communication and coordination on regional and global issues to jointly address common challenges and to safeguard peace and stability. With regard to the Korean Peninsula, the two sides reiterated their understanding as expressed in the 2011 U.S.-China Joint Statement."

The Joint Statement issued at the end of a summit meeting in Washington in January between U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao "emphasized the importance of an improvement in North-South relations and agreed that sincere and constructive inter-Korean dialogue is an essential step."

That was the point Clinton made in her speech to open the annual high-level Sino-U.S. dialogue Monday.

"We continue to urge North Korea to take concrete actions to improve relations with South Korea, and to refrain from further provocations," Clinton said Monday. "We want to see North Korea take irreversible steps to fulfill its international obligations toward denuclearization."

The chief nuclear envoys of South Korea and China last month agreed on the need for North Korea to have a bilateral nuclear dialogue with South Korea and then another bilateral discussion with the U.S. ahead of any plenary session of the six-party talks.

The talks have been deadlocked for more than two years over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests, the shelling of a South Korean border island and the torpedoing of a South Korean border island that killed 50 people last year.

Seoul and Washington want Pyongyang to address South Korean grievances over the North's provocations last year before any resumption of the multinational denuclearization-for-aid talks, involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.

North Korea refused to apologize and walked out of a rare inter-Korean dialogue in February, denying its role in the Cheonan's sinking and claiming that the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island was provoked by South Korea's artillery exercises near the North Korean maritime border.

Seoul and Washington also want North Korea's uranium enrichment program first dealt with at the U.N. Security Council. Pyongyang and Beijing insist the uranium be discussed at the six-party talks.

Pyongyang revealed the uranium enrichment plant in November, triggering concerns that it might serve as another way of making nuclear weapons separate from its existing plutonium program. The North claims it is for power generation.

Despite the Chinese reluctance, Obama pushed Hu hard and they "expressed concern" over North Korea's "claimed uranium enrichment program" in the Joint Statement in January.

The statement also "called for the necessary steps that would allow for early resumption of the six-party talks process," and expressed opposition to "all activities inconsistent with the 2005 Joint Statement and relevant international obligations and commitments."

The six-party deal, signed in 2005, calls for the North's nuclear dismantlement in return for massive economic aid and diplomatic and political benefits.

In an apparent bid to thaw inter-Korean relations, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il proposed an inter-Korean summit through former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who visited Pyongyang late last month.

Seoul remained cool, questioning the sincerity of a proposal made through a third party.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has instead offered to invite the reclusive North Korean leader to next year's Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul if the North makes a firm pledge toward denuclearization.

North Korea has been suffering from economic hardship and severe food shortages.

In a response to Kim Jong-il's proposal for an inter-Korean summit and Lee's counteroffer for an invitation to the nuclear summit, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, "We're not going to speculate on what may happen, but our position's always been that we believe that these kind ... that North-South talks are an important opportunity for North Korea to demonstrate its sincerity and to take some steps to improve relations."

"I've seen these reports, I've seen the comments and proposals," Toner said. "But we're looking, again, for concrete actions that show that North Korea is willing to change its belligerent behavior."