The top U.S. envoy in Seoul said Friday that South Korea should take stronger steps against North Korea to enforce the U.N. resolution to punish it for a recent nuclear test.
Although U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Alexander Vershbow used carefully-chosen diplomatic rhetoric, his message for South Korea seemed clear: join the U.S.-led nonproliferation initiative and rethink inter-Korean economic projects.
Vershbow said he expects South Korea to "take appropriate steps after healthy and democratic discussions" on whether to take part in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). The PSI is aimed at interdicting shipments of weapons of mass destruction, and mainly targets North Korean vessels.
South Korea is caught between worries over a possible maritime conflict with its communist neighbor and growing pressure from its key ally to join the PSI.
Vershbow said the decision is up to the South Korean government, repeating comments by senior U.S. officials -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill.
Speaking at an alumni meeting of Yonsei University's journalism school, the U.S. envoy also stressed that South Korea should take a different approach towards its joint ventures with the North.
He said the industrial complex in the North's border town of Kaesong may have some positive aspects, especially in terms of introducing a free market system to the communist nation.
"But South Korea has to look at it in the new prospective," Vershbow said, citing the situation after the North conducted a nuclear test on Oct. 9 and the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution to slap arms and financial sanctions on Pyongyang.
Vershbow said South Korea needs to "bear in mind that the U.N. resolution asks all member states to look at any programs that may be providing direct or indirect support to North Korea's nuclear weapons program."
Earlier this month, Hill, Washington's point man on Pyongyang, raised questions about a South Korean company's tours to Mount Geumgang, an eastern resort in North Korea.
He said it appears to serve as a source of financial revenue for the communist regime.
The project "seems to be designed to give money to the North Korean authorities," said Christopher Hill during his trip to Seoul.
On Thursday, South Korea announced its first concrete measures against the North in line with the U.N. resolution.
Lee Jong-seok, the South's top policymaker on the North, said the government will abide by the decision by the U.N. Security Council's sanctions committee working to select specific items to face sanctions on Pyongyang.
He said the government will ban the entry of North Korean officials and civilians suspected of being linked with entities to be blacklisted by the committee and curb their financial transactions.
South Korea's related authorities are in consultations to draw up a report to be summitted to the committee on the country's measures to implement the resolution, which requires U.N. member states to present their own steps by the middle of next month.
"The government will make the decision soon to meet the deadline," a Foreign Ministry official said. "The issue of joining the PSI is also under discussion. A problem is that South Koreans are allergic to the PSI itself, as they have no adequate understanding on the purpose and characteristics of the PSI."
The U.S. government hailed Seoul's plan to ban the entry of North Koreans and their financial transactions.
"I think it demonstrates that South Korea, like other members of the United Nations, are going to take this resolution very seriously and implementation of this resolution very seriously," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a press briefing.
Seoul, Oct. 27 (Yonhap News)
U.S. envoy urges Seoul to join PSI, view inter-Korean projects differently |
