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SKorea's Lee urges NKorea to resume talks
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 01 - 03 - 2009


South Korea's president urged
North Korea on Sunday to stop stoking tension, saying
engagement with the international community will serve the
reclusive communist nation's interests better than missiles
and nuclear weapons, according to AP.
Tension between the two Koreas has run high since
conservative, pro-U.S. President Lee Myung-bak took office
in Seoul one year ago. It has further intensified in recent
weeks amid reports the North plans to test-fire a
long-range missile.
North Korea has cut off government-level talks with Seoul
and halted joint projects to protest Lee's hard-line
approach, which includes the suspension of his liberal
predecessors' policy of sending unconditional aid to the
North.
«What protects North Korea is not nuclear weapons and
missiles but South-North cooperation and cooperation with
the international community,» Lee said in a nationally
televised speech marking Korea's independence movement
against Japanese colonial rule.
Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, speaking
after meetings Sunday with top Chinese leaders including
Premier Wen Jiabao, called on the North «to exercise
self-restraint and not to escalate the tension or anxiety
in the region.»
Chinese officials «listened to our view,» Nakasone was
quoted as saying in a statement read to reporters by
Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kazuo Kodama in
Beijing. The Chinese officials had yet to «decide their
judgment on their own,» he said.
China remains the North's only major ally and a key donor
of food and energy.
The South Korean president called for a quick resumption
of talks between the two Koreas, still technically at war
because the 1950s Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace
treaty.
North Korea said last week that it was preparing to launch
a communication satellite into orbit as part of its space
development program. The United States, South Korea and
other neighboring countries believe the launch may be a
cover for a missile test, saying the action would trigger
international sanctions.
«I would hope that the North Koreans would not be
provocative in their actions. And in fact, we're keeping a
very, very close eye on what they're doing,» Adm. Mike
Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on
the TV program «Fox News Sunday.»
Analysts say North Korea's planned launch is a bid for
President Barack Obama's attention as international
disarmament talks have remained stalled for months over how
to verify the North's past nuclear activities.
The two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia have
been involved in on-and-off talks aimed at getting the
North to give up its nuclear weapons program in return for
aid and other benefits.
Lee said South Korea is ready to help the North rebuild
its shattered economy with the international community if
it lives up to its pledge to abandon its nuclear weapons.
«The denuclearization would be the shortcut for North
Korea to rapidly become a member of the international
community,» Lee said.
Later Sunday, dozens of conservative activists staged an
anti-North Korea rally in Seoul during which they burned
the North's flag and replicas of its long-range missile.
«We're urging the North's nuclear dismantling,» the
activists chanted.


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