South Korea's foreign minister on Wednesday urged North Korea to follow the footsteps of Libya, which normalized full diplomatic ties with the United States in return for abandoning its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program.
The U.S. has also decided to remove the African country from the blacklist of terrorism-sponsoring nations, which will lead to the lifting of economic sanctions against Tripoli.
"Libya has become eligible for various incentives from the U.S.
by voluntarily giving up its WMD," Ban Ki-moon said during his weekly media briefing.
There will be a "bright and good future" for North Korea once Pyongyang abandons its nuclear program, he added.
Ban's comments came as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill is set to visit South Korea next week to discuss ways of re-energizing the nuclear talks on North Korea's nuclear program.
During his two-day stay from May 25, Washington's chief delegate to the six-way talks plans to meet with his South Korean counterpart Chun Yung-woo and other related officials, according to Ban.
Ban said the main purpose of Hill's trip is to make consultations on the North Korean nuclear issue and bilateral issues between Seoul and Washington.
Hill will stop over in Seoul on his way back home after attending the ASEAN Regional Forum in Malaysia from May 18-19, he added.
"His trip reflects the fact that South Korea and the U.S. are closely working together to resume the six-way talks," he said.
The nuclear discussions, based in Beijing, have been boycotted by the North since the U.S. launched a full-scale crackdown on the North's alleged counterfeiting and other illicit activities last September.
Ban said, however, he has no information on whether the U.S.
official will have a meeting with former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
Kim paved the way for inter-Korean reconciliation by holding the first-ever summit between the two Koreas with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000 in Pyongyang.
Kim is scheduled to revisit the communist nation late next month, and the two Koreas are in talks to set the details of his trip.
Officials here expect Kim to fetch a positive message for the resumption of the nuclear talks and the much-awaited follow up to the landmark inter-Korean summit.
Speaking to a group of ethnic Koreans in Mongolia during his trip there last week, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said that, "I hope that former President Kim Dae-jung will be able to have a flexible dialogue."
Roh added that his government is ready to meet the North Korean leader anytime and anywhere, and make "plenty of concessions" to the communist state. He did not specify what the concessions would be, however.
Analysts construed Roh's remarks as reflecting Seoul's will to play a greater role in resolving the nuclear crisis.
In Washington, U.S. officials said that Libya could be a good model for resolving the issue.
"Libya is an important model as nations around the world press for changes in behavior by the Iranian and North Korean regimes, changes that could be vital to international peace and security," he said.
But some U.S. experts are skeptical of the possibility that North Korea will take a cue from Libya, pointing out it is asking for a light-water reactor in return for scrapping its nuclear program.
"Those positions in the six-party talks really take N. Korea further away from any prospect of inheritance to the so-called Libyan Model," Larry Allen Niksch, a Specialist in Asian Affairs with the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, said in an interview with Radio Free Asia. Seoul May 17(Yonhap News Agency)
U.S. chief nuclear envoy to visit Seoul next week |
