YONHAP NEWS

(LEAD) N. Korea urges U.S. to discard policy of 'confrontation'

NEW YORK, Sept. 28 (Yonhap) -- A senior North Korean diplomat warned Monday that his country will beef up its nuclear arsenal unless the United States changes its policy of "confrontation" towards Pyongyang but said it will also respond to dialogue.

"The denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula depends on whether or not the U.S. changes its policy towards Korea," North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Kil-yon said in a speech at the U.N. General Assembly.

Pak Kil-yon

The envoy also said his government will "react to dialogue with dialogue."

   "If the U.S. comes to dialogue with 'sanctions', we will also participate in dialogue with bolstered nuclear deterrence," Pak, former ambassador to the U.N., said in the speech. "In order to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the U.S. administration must discard its old concept of confrontation and show the 'change' that it recently stated on several occasions, in practice."
He reaffirmed that the communist state, aiming for a nuclear-free peninsula, is willing to replace the ceasefire that effectively ended the 1950-53 Korean War with a permanent peace agreement and sign a nonaggression treaty with Washington.

   The speech was mostly a repeat of the North's stated stance and a renewed call for bilateral dialogue with the U.S. to discuss the mentioned issues.

   The U.S. has said it was open to direct talks with the North, but only to persuade it to return to the six-nation denuclearization forum also involving South Korea, China, Russia and Japan.

   U.S. officials, however, have not set a date or venue, and have not detailed the characteristics of such a one-on-one meeting. They stress that the Obama administration will keep pushing for the implementation of the U.N. sanctions on the North for its nuclear test in May, even if the two sides are engaged in bilateral talks.

   "I think one of the lessons that the United States has learned in this process is a certain degree of patience pays off," Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs told reporters in Washington. "I think we're in the process now of planning our next steps in terms of diplomacy in Northeast Asia."

   He was referring to the ongoing tour of Asia by Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg. He was to arrive in Seoul on Tuesday night (local time) from Beijing for discussions on how to deal with North Korea.

   Steinberg is scheduled to have a breakfast meeting with Kim Sung-hwan, senior secretary to President Lee Myung-bak for security and foreign affairs, and Seoul's top nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac on Wednesday, followed by a meeting with Vice Foreign Minister Kwon Jong-rak. He will then fly to Tokyo, the last leg of his five-nation trip which also took him to Vietnam and Malaysia.

   China, the host of the six-party talks, will be also sending Premier Wen Jiabao to Pyongyang next week, a trip closely watched as an opportunity to glean North Korea's intentions.

   Diplomatic sources in Beijing said the North's leader Kim Jong-il may make an important proposal on the disarmament talks in his meeting with Wen.

   lcd@yna.co.kr
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