By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 (Yonhap) -- The United States Thursday reiterated it will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state, urging the North to cease provocations and abide by its denuclearization pledge.

   "The U.S. position on the DPRK has remained constant: we will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons power," Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

   "The United States has underscored numerous times that North Korea can only achieve the security and international respect it seeks by ceasing its provocative behavior, improving its relations with its neighbors, complying with international law, and taking irreversible steps toward fulfilling its denuclearization commitments under the September 2005 Joint Statement," Campbell said.

   The six-party deal signed in 2005 calls for North Korea's denuclearization in exchange for a massive economic aid, diplomatic recognition by Washington and Tokyo and a peace regime to replace the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. Signatories are the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.

   Talks for implementation of the agreement faltered early last year as the North launched a rocket and detonated a nuclear device, the second of its kind after one in 2006, inviting U.N. sanctions.

   The North's torpedoeing of the South Korean warship Cheonan in March aggravated the conditions for the resumption of the six-party nuclear talks, as Seoul and Washington seek Pyongyang's apology before any reopening of the talks. The North denies any responsibility for the sinking, which killed 46 sailors.

   "The attack on the Cheonan served as a stark reminder of the importance of our alliance in the face of continued North Korean provocations and raised tensions to a level not seen in many years," Campbell said. "North Korea poses the most immediate risks to both South Korea and the stability of East Asia."

   Wallace Gregson, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, warned of further provocations from the North.

   "North Korea may become emboldened to pursue even more provocative activities than we have witnessed in recent years, if it makes significant strides in its development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technology," Gregson told the hearing. "Although North Korea's Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile has not yet reached the requisite level of technological refinement, the missile is theoretically capable of striking U.S. territory."

   North Korea's rocket launch early last year is widely seen as a partial success, but Gregson noted the North's test firing of the Taepodong-1 over Japan in 1998 demonstrated "that at a minimum, it is capable of striking U.S. interests and allies in the Asia-Pacific."

   The official also said he was concerned about North Korea's weapons technology transfer to Iran, without elaborating. "North Korea has demonstrated frequently their intent to violate a number of international norms, sanctions and resolutions to transfer forbidden military technology to more than one other party."

   Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of the U.S. Forces in Korea, meanwhile, rebuffed North Korea's claim it has nothing to do with the Cheonan's sinking.

   "North Korea launched a premeditated and unprovoked attack on the Republic of Korea navy ship, the Cheonan," Sharp told the hearing.

   Sharp endorsed the outcome of the international probe, saying, "A shockwave and bubble effect generated by an underwater explosion of a North Korean-launched torpedo, at a depth of six to eight meters and three meters left of the center of the ship, caused the ROK ship the Cheonan to split apart and killed 46 sailors."

   The United Nations Command in South Korea also established its own investigation team, and "concluded that North Korea attacked the Cheonan and it was a major armistice violation," said Sharp, who doubles as the UNC commander.

   Gregson said the Cheonan incident might be "somehow tied into the mysterious succession politics inside North Korea."

   There are rumors of an imminent meeting of the North's ruling Workers Party for the first time in three decades to anoint ailing leader Kim Jong-il's youngest son, Jong-un, as heir. The theory is that the junior Kim instigated the Cheonan attack to seek the military's support.

   Similarly, Kim Jong-il is believed to have been behind the downing of a Korean Air plane that killed all 115 passengers aboard in 1987 while being groomed to succeed his father, Kim Il-sung.

   Noting that the Korean Air flight's downing took place a year before Seoul hosted the Summer Olympics in 1988, Campbell linked the Cheonan incident to South Korea's hosting of the G-20 economic summit in November.

   "The upcoming G-20 is a very big deal, very big deal for the South Koreans," he said. "It's the arrival of South Korea on the global stage; probably, again, the biggest diplomatic achievement in their history. And one could imagine that this would play into part of the dynamic that we've seen in North Korea."

   Campbell also discussed China's reluctance to directly blame North Korea for the Cheonan's sinking.

   "I think they believe that this is an incredibly critical period, perhaps a somewhat uncertain period in North Korea," he said. "They have told us that they believe that certain steps could drive North Korea to the wall. And that was not in their strategic interests."

   The hearing came as Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, concluded a tour of Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing Thursday to discuss how to restart the nuclear talks.

   Bosworth said in Beijing earlier in the day that he sees "no indication" that North Korea will apologize for the Cheonan's sinking, but is still optimistic.

   "One of the things that we believe quite strongly is that as part of the process of re-engagement there has to be a re-engagement on the South-North axis as well, and I think there is some reason to be somewhat optimistic that at least part of that has begun," he said.

   The U.S. envoy was discussing a series of conciliatory gestures Pyongyang has made in recent weeks.

   The North has proposed a military dialogue with South Korea to defuse tensions, a new round of reunions of the families separated by the division of the Korean Peninsula at the end of World War II and the ensuing 1950-53 Korean War, returned seven crewmembers of a South Korean fishing boat caught along the sea border last month and requested aid to recover from recent flooding.

   Bosworth said the U.S. will "continue to pursue basically a two-pronged strategy: On the one hand we continue to enforce the sanctions which have been put in place over the last year or more on the DPRK, but simultaneously we remain open to dialogue and constructive engagement."

   He said that U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in New York next week on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly to discuss North Korea and other issues.

   "It is clear that this area, this question of North Korea and the North Korean nuclear program, is seen by both governments as fundamental to our partnership and our relationship," he said.

   Bosworth, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, is visiting Seoul again Friday, Seoul officials said.

   North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Gil-yon is visiting New York next week to attend the U.N. General Assembly. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Wednesday that he knew nothing about any planned meeting between U.S. and North Korean officials in New York.

   Talks were under way in March for a visit to New York by North Korea's chief nuclear envoy, Kim Kye-gwan, as a prelude to the resumption of the six-party talks, but they collapsed after the Cheonan's sinking.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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