Roh fears N.K. nuclear test would be more devastating than missile launches

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun acknowledged that a North Korean nuclear test would be far more devastating than the July missile launches and is sending this message to Pyongyang and Beijing, a former U.S. envoy to Seoul said Friday.

The president talked about political pressures in negotiating new military command arrangements with the United States but said they were being addressed appropriately, Donald Gregg said.

Gregg, now head of the Korea Society based in New York, was at a roundtable Roh hosted for Korea experts after his summit with President George W. Bush. The former diplomat often visits Pyongyang and is scheduled to go there again late next month.

Coming out of their summit, the presidents said they reaffirmed their commitment to a diplomatic resolution to the North Korean nuclear dispute. They also agreed that ongoing readjustments to the military alliance should not turn into political fodder and said the changes would proceed in full bilateral consultations.

The summit opened amid speculation of a serious rift in their ties caused by different views about North Korea's missile tests in July and the means to bring Pyongyang back to the six-party talks.

The six-nation forum involves South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan and aims at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. The talks have been in hiatus since November.

The latest intelligence analysis indicates Pyongyang now may be preparing a nuclear test.

Gregg said he was struck by Roh's honest evaluation of the shock to his country caused by North Korea's missile tests.

"When he was asked about the impact of the North Korean nuclear test, he was very frank in saying that would be far more devastating," the former envoy said.

"He (Roh) said, 'We are telling this message to North Korea and the Chinese.'" "It was very clear from what President Roh said that he feels it would be a tremendously difficult thing for him to handle if that was done by the North Koreans," said Gregg.

A nuclear test "would certainly cause a major reevaluation of relations in Seoul, as President Roh put it," he said.

The South Korean leader alluded to "political pressure" when asked about the transfer of wartime operational control, an issue under negotiation between military authorities of the two countries.

The control of South Korean forces at time of war currently rests with a U.S. commander, an arrangement decided at the outbreak of the 1950-1953 Korean War. Seoul wants to have it transferred to the South Korean side in 2012, but Washington proposes 2009.

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen raised the issue at the roundtable, concerned that the operational control may not be transferred completely but possibly split between Army, Navy and the Air Force.

But Roh appeared to feel that the issues were being dealt with adequately, Gregg said.

The South Korean leader also talked about history issues with Japan, the "ripple effects" of Japanese politicians' visits to the Yasukuni Shrine that honors war criminals, but said he was not as concerned about the more recent history issues raised with China's "Northeast Asia Project," according to Gregg.

On inter-Korean relations, Roh focused on getting more information and more South Korean goods into North Korea.

"He said he needs to do all he can to help the North Korean people understand where they are in relation to the world," Gregg said.

The former ambassador described Thursday's summit as a wisely organized success that highlighted the positive side of their alliance.

He said there was some "papering over" of some sensitive issues but felt the summit was "the best meeting they ever had."

"I would say that there's been a wise decision to make the meeting as broadly focused as could be," he said.

Thomas Hubbard, another former U.S. envoy to Seoul who attended the roundtable, also called the summit a success.

"I think we both agreed that North Korea's refusal to come back to the six-party talks and its continued nuclear program and its missile tests required some kind of response," he said.

Washington, Sept. 15 (Yonhap News)