Seoul's Chief Envoy Stresses Patience in Nuclear Talks

invisible progress By Lee Chi-dong SEOUL, May 3 (Yonhap) -- Chung Yung-woo, South Korea's chief negotiator to the troubled talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis, uses a famous saying to encapsulate his outlook: "Time will cure a problem."

With prospects for an early resumption of the six-party negotiations declining, Chun says the current stalemate will not continue indefinitely. He stresses a need for patience.

He admits that such issues as Pyongyang's alleged counterfeiting and human rights abuses have been increasingly spotlighted in recent months, complicating the multilateral efforts to resolve the nuclear crisis.

"But the North Korean nuclear issue remains a top priority for U.S. officials, although they may feel a sense of more urgency on the Iranian nuclear program," Chun said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday.

His remarks came in response to media speculation that the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, apparently emboldened by the success in its financial crackdown on North Korea, has put the nuclear issue on the back burner.

The U.S. froze roughly US$24 million of North Korean capital deposited in a Macau bank last September, saying the funds were accumulated from Pyongyang's illicit trade of fake U.S. dollars and weapons of mass destruction.

U.S. officials have since tightened sanctions against the cash-strapped state.

Another concern for North Korean leaders is the Bush administration's intensifying attacks on the communist nation's notorious human rights record.

U.S. President Bush invited a family of North Korean defectors and the mother of a Japanese citizen abducted by Pyongyang decades ago to his office last weekend, reminding the world of his will to address the country's human rights situation. Jay Lefkowitz, Bush's special envoy on North Korean human rights, has openly fired salvos at what he claims to be hasty aid by Seoul to its impoverished neighbor, especially through an inter-Korean industrial complex in Kaesong.

Not surprisingly, recalcitrant Pyongyang has boycotted the nuclear talks, demanding Washington to drop its pressure-oriented policy.

Seoul's top nuclear negotiator, who was promoted to the post in February, has yet to debut at the six-party negotiations based in Beijing.

But he says the timing of his debut is not a big deal.

"A more important issue is how we will make progress when the talks resume," said the official known for his expertise in disarmament and nonproliferation affairs. "It will be much more difficult to make headway at the table than to restart the talks."

Indeed, Chun faces a daunting task of bargaining with veteran diplomats from the U.S., North Korea, China, Russia, and Japan on how to implement the vaguely-worded agreement reached last September, in which North Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear program in return for economic aid and security guarantees.

Key sticking points include when North Korea will receive much-coveted light-water reactors and whether it has a highly-enriched uranium program.

Chun sees a silver lining, however.

"It can be better for all the negative factors affecting the nuclear talks to come to the surface and be fully discussed so that related parties can focus attention on the nuclear issue when the talks resume someday," he said.

In that sense, invisible progress is being made in the efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis, despite no visible progress in the six-party process, he added.

Chun gave a cautious outlook on the upcoming trip to Washington by Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Wu Dawei.

"It is hard to predict the result of a future incident. There is a chance for something unexpected to happen. One thing clear is that China has yet to use its full leverage to prod North Korea to rejoin the six-way talks," he said in the interview at his office in the Foreign Ministry headquarters in central Seoul.

Chun moved to the office last month, as he was appointed to double as the inaugural head of the ministry's new organization specializing in the North Korean nuclear issue and ways of bringing lasting peace to the Korean Peninsula. Chun likens it to a brand-new restaurant that does not have many customers now but is making preparations for hectic business days. "After all, time will cure," he said. (Seoul=Yonhap News Agency)