U.S. upbeat after North Korea talks but no breakthroughs

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA |

(Reuters) - The United States is optimistic about an eventual return to six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program but there were no breakthroughs during two days of meetings with North Korean negotiators, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.

Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy, said differences had been narrowed but did not reveal specifics of the talks with the senior North Korean negotiators.

The discussions had "touched on all issues," including humanitarian aid, but he declined to say whether North Korea's contested uranium enrichment program had been the focus.

"It has been a very useful meeting," Bosworth told reporters outside the U.S. diplomatic mission in Geneva.

"The tone was positive and generally constructive," he added.

"I am confident that with continued effort on both sides we can reach a reasonable basis of departure for formal negotiations for a return to the six-party process."

Washington and Pyongyang had a long history marked by "many differences," not all of which can be overcome quickly, he said.

"We narrowed differences on several points and explored our differences on other points. We came to the conclusion that we will need more time and more discussion to reach agreement," Bosworth said.

In the cautious world of U.S.-North Korean diplomacy, the comments were relatively upbeat. But U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington, "while there's been some narrowing of differences, we haven't had any breakthroughs here and significant issues do remain."

The two sides held bilateral talks in New York in late July, the first since six-party talks over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program collapsed in 2009. The wider talks include South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.

The United States and South Korea insist that the North immediately halt its uranium enrichment work, which it unveiled last year, as a precursor to restarting regional talks that offer economic aid in return for denuclearization by Pyongyang.

U.S. and North Korean officials would consult with their respective capitals and stay in touch via the New York diplomatic mission of the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK), according to Bosworth.

There was no specific timetable for the next round of talks, a U.S. official told Reuters.

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VOA Presents: American History: In the 1950s, Conflict in Korea

Photo: AP

American troops land at Pohang on the east coast of Korea in July 1950

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. 

Today, we tell about the Korean War. The biggest problem facing Dwight Eisenhower when he became president of the United States was the continuing conflict in Korea.

Eisenhower was elected in November nineteen fifty-two. At the time, the United States had been helping South Korea fight North Korea for more than two years. About twenty other members of the United Nations were also helping the South. The UN members provided troops, equipment, and medical aid.

EISENHOWER: “I shall go to Korea.”

During the American presidential election campaign, Eisenhower announced that he would go to Korea. He thought such a trip would help end the war. Eisenhower kept his promise. He went to Korea after he won the election, but before he was sworn-in as president. Yet the fighting did not stop in Korea until July of the next year, nineteen fifty-three.

(MUSIC)

The war started when North Korean troops invaded South Korea. Both sides believed they should control all of the country.

The dream of a united Korea was a powerful one. From nineteen-ten until World War Two, Korea had been under Japanese rule. In an agreement at the end of the war, troops from the Soviet Union occupied the North. They accepted the surrender of Japanese troops and set up a military government. American troops did the same in the South. The border dividing north and south was the geographic line known as the thirty-eighth parallel.

A few years later, the United Nations General Assembly ordered free elections for all of Korea. With UN help, the South established the Republic of Korea. Syngman Rhee was elected the first president.

On the other side of the thirty-eighth parallel, however, Soviet troops refused to let UN election officials enter the North. The Soviet Union supported creation of a communist government there, called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Kim Il-sung was named premier.

Five years after the end of World War Two, the United States had withdrawn almost all its troops from South Korea. It was not clear if America would defend the South from attack. South Korea had an army. But it was smaller and less powerful than the North Korean army.

North Korea decided the time was right to invade. On June twenty-fifth, nineteen-fifty, North Korean soldiers crossed the thirty-eighth parallel. The UN Security Council demanded that they go back. Two days later, the Council approved military support for South Korea. The Soviet delegate boycotted the meeting that day. If he had been present, the resolution would have been defeated.

(SOUND)

The UN demand did not stop the North Korean troops. They continued to push south. In a week, they were on the edge of the capital, Seoul.

 

Listen To Entire Program Here

North Korea says peace treaty a first step for denuclearization

Credit: Reuters/Kim Jae-hwan/Pool

(Reuters) - North Korea Wednesday renewed calls for a peace treaty with the United States to officially end the Korean War, nearly 60 years after fighting ended, arguing it could be the first step toward the denuclearization of the peninsula.

Pyongyang issued its latest pleas for a treaty amid an easing of tensions with rival South Korea and during a visit by a top North Korean diplomat to the United States to discuss the resumption of stalled nuclear disarmament talks.

"Concluding a peace agreement may be the first step for settling the Korean issue, including denuclearization," KCNA state news agency said in a commentary on the anniversary of the ceasefire in the 1950-53 war.

The two Koreas are still technically at war because fighting stopped with only a truce, not a treaty.

The North has for years tried to persuade the United States to agree to a peace treaty, hoping to force the withdrawal of some 30,000 American troops from the South. The North walked out of aid-for-denuclearization talks in 2009 after the United Nations imposed a new round of sanctions for nuclear and missile tests. Last year, it said it wanted to rejoin the forum.

Washington and Seoul point to the North's revelations of a uranium enrichment program last year as a sign it is not serious about giving up its plans to develop atomic weapons. The North has twice tested plutonium-based nuclear devices.

The North's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan arrived in New York Wednesday where is he is expected to meet Washington's envoy for Korean peninsula affairs, Stephen Bosworth.

Hopes are building that the six-party talks, which also involve China, Russia and Japan, will restart soon after the nuclear envoys and foreign ministers of the two Koreas met last week.

Relations between the two Koreas crashed to their lowest level in nearly two decades last year after two attacks killed 50 South Koreans.

(Reporting by Jeremy Laurence; Editing by Ron Popeski)

North Korea Says It Will Release American

By EVAN RAMSTAD


Zhang Li/Xinhua/Associated Press

U.S. envoy Robert King, far right, arriving Tuesday in Pyongyang, where he pressed for the release of American Eddie Jun

SEOUL—North Korea will release an American it arrested last November for an unspecified crime, the North's state media said Friday. The announcement followed a visit from a U.S. diplomat who had pressed for his freedom.

Eddie Jun, from suburban Los Angeles, was detained and later charged with an "anti-DPRK" crime that the North's media hasn't revealed. DPRK refers to North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Robert King, the U.S. envoy for North Korea human rights, arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday to assess the country's request for a resumption of American food aid, which the North cut off at the end of 2008 over a dispute about Korean-speaking monitors the U.S. sent to make sure food reached the needy.

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Foreigners Held in North Korea Pose Diplomatic Challenge

http://www.voanews.com

Photo: Reuters

A family member of a South Korean who, he said, was abducted by North Korea, looks at pictures of Japanese people who were believed to be abducted by the North, during a campaign demanding for a legislation of North Korean human rights laws and repatriations of the abductees in central Seoul, April 27, 2011.

North Korea is now acknowledging it is still holding two Japanese, as well as an American of Korean origin. VOA Correspondent Steve Herman in Seoul reports the cases pose complications for their governments, which have no diplomatic relations with Pyongyang.

The charges

On the Wednesday evening North Korean newscast, an announcer read a communiqué about the detention, in the port city of Rason, of three Japanese nationals on charges of drug trafficking and counterfeiting.

The trio, the announcer says, admitted its crimes and the gravity of the offenses. One man, Masaki Furuya, has already been expelled from the country. The communiqué says, however, the two others, Hidehiko Abe and Takumi Hirooka, will face trial stemming from their arrests on March 14.

Japan’s foreign ministry has had sparse comment, merely saying it is investigating the case.

North Korea is also holding an American citizen, identified as Jun Yong-su.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, during a private visit to Pyongyang last week with several European elder statesmen, unsuccessfully attempted to secure Jun’s release.

Jun, alternatively described as a California businessman and a Christian minister based in China, was arrested last November and charged with unspecified crimes against North Korea. There have been reports he was involved in missionary work. Pyongyang considers
proselytizing a subversive measure aimed at undermining the government.

Jun appears to have entered North Korea legally. The U.S. State Department has provided few details, citing privacy rules, but has called repeatedly on Pyongyang to release the American citizen as a humanitarian gesture.

Harsh measures

But there are indications North Korea intends to deal harshly with the Korean-American.

Sources tell VOA News that envoys in North Korea have been told Jun may face espionage charges, for which the penalty is death.

Jun is the fifth American detained by North Korea in the past two years. Carter traveled to Pyongyang to arrange the release of one of them, while another former U.S. president, Bill Clinton, secured the freedom of two journalists.

In all of the cases, the Americans were put on trial before their release.

Bargaining chip

Analysts say North Korea typically attempts to use such detained foreigners as diplomatic bargaining chips.

Yoo Ho-yeol, professor of North Korean Studies at Korea University, notes Pyongyang usually does not hold on to such foreigners for very long.

But Professor Yoo says it is possible North Korea will now impose harsher penalties in such cases as part of a heightened crackdown against anti-regime attempts. He notes that after the foreigners are sentenced, Pyongyang typically accepts pleas from diplomats to free
them.

Securing release

In the new cases, the professor says, both the United States and Japan will need to work, albeit indirectly, with the North Korean government for the release of their citizens.

The cases are complicated by the fact that neither Washington nor Tokyo has diplomatic relations with Pyongyang.

Professor Yoo expects communications to be handled through the Swedish delegation in the North Korean capital.

Yoo says western diplomats based in North Korea, such as the Swedes, will monitor any trials, relay concerns about the conditions of the prisoners and negotiate for their eventual release.

North Korea, through trade zones, such as Rason, has been making attempts in recent years to engage foreign investors to boost its impoverished economy. But the communist state closely monitors them, looking for indications visitors could be engaged in missionary work, news-gathering, espionage or other activities perceived as potentially
undermining the authoritarian government.

Find this article at: http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/east-pacific/Foreigners-Held-in-North-Korea-Pose-Diplomatic-Challenge-121309549.html

Propaganda Wars: South Korea Tries 'Balloon Diplomacy' With Northern Neighbors

By: Michele Travierso

Defectors and conservative activists release balloons carrying leaflets condemning North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on December 18, 2010.

KIM JAE-HWAN / AFP / Getty Images

Seoul is using an old-school method — leaflet bombing — to tell its northern neighbors about events in the Middle East.

(More from TIME.com: See rare and extraordinary pictures from inside North Korea.)

As part of its ongoing campaign to win over North Koreans, South Korea has once again turned to "balloon diplomacy," sending gas-filled balloons skyward with messages and goodies in tow. Although the exact content of the messages is not known, they are believed to reference recent anti-government protests in Egypt and Libya.

According to Reuters, the campaign is aimed at inciting North Koreans to think about "change." It's not quite “Yes We Can,” but perhaps it's a start? Maybe, though few seem optimistic that the Hermit Kingdom will rise up against its Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il.

"Compared to some of these Arab societies, they have done a much more effective job in maintaining control over the public," a rep from the Korea Institute for National Unification told Reuters. "You're never going to be able to predict a collapse until the day it happens, but even then, this is a much more perfectly closed society with control over information and travel."

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com

North Korea Rules Out Further Military Talks With South

Voice of America
http://www.voanews.com

by Steve Herman



South Korean delegate Army Col. Moon Sang-gyun, second from left, is questioned by reporters as he leaves for military meeting with North Korea in Seoul, South Korea, February 8, 2011.

Photo: AP

South Korean delegate Army Col. Moon Sang-gyun, second from left, is questioned by reporters as he leaves for military meeting with North Korea in Seoul, South Korea, February 8, 2011.

North Korea’s military says it will not bother to hold further talks with South Korean officers. The statement comes a day after preliminary discussions between the two sides collapsed.

Pyongyang blames the South for the collapse of their preliminary military talks. The North’s military said Thursday that the South’s colonels left their meeting at Panmunjom because they reject dialogue and do not wish to see relations improve.

South Korea’s defense ministry says it was actually the North’s delegation that left without comment following an acrimonious exchange Wednesday.

The North Korean statement, which adds that Pyongyang’s military and people will never "beg" for peace, is relatively subdued compared with comments after similar negotiating ruptures.

Park Kie-duck is a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute, a policy research organization in Seoul. He believes Pyongyang wants to leave open the door for future talks as it does not want relations to remain ruptured.

The South’s lead delegate to the talks, Colonel Moon Sang-gyun, says the door is still open for high-level military discussions but Pyongyang must accept Seoul’s condition that it takes responsibility for two lethal incidents last year.

South Korea contends a North Korean torpedo sank one of its navy ships in the Yellow Sea last March. The North Koreans deny any involvement in the incident. North Korea, seven months later, shelled a South Korean island in the same waters, but has not apologized, as Seoul demands.

Sejong Institute analyst Park says it is likely that Pyongyang will reach out first to suggest another meeting of colonel-level officers.

Park says that is because China, North Korea’s mentor and supporter, wants inter-Korean talks to be held. Also, Park says, Seoul has made clear it will not continue with talks unless Pyongyang changes its attitude and shows sincerity.

South Korean officials say they also want progress on the military dialogue before allowing Red Cross talks with the North on resuming family reunions across the heavily fortified border.

The United States, South Korea and Japan have also indicated multi-national talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs are not possible until there is some progress in discussions between Pyongyang and Seoul

The nuclear talks also include China and Russia, who have called for a new round. North Korea withdrew from the process in 2009 and kicked out nuclear inspectors from the United Nations.

Concern has increased about Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons development after North Korea last year revealed an expanded uranium enrichment program.

Korea talks collapse after North walks out

http://www.globalpost.com

Talks between North and South Korea collapsed Wednesday stoking fears that North Korea may stage another nuclear test.

South Korean chief delegate Colonel Moon Sang-Gyun (C) is surrounded by journalists as he leaves for the truce village of Panmunjom at the government building in Seoul on Feb. 8, 2011. Military officers from North and South Korea will meet for the first cross-border talks since the North's deadly shelling of a South Korean island last November sent tensions on the peninsula soaring. (Jung Yeon-Je/Getty Images)

Talks between North and South Korea collapsed Wednesday after the two sides failed to secure high-level military discussions, stoking fears that North Korea may stage another nuclear test.

The North Korean delegation walked away from the negotiating table, a move that was called "unilateral" by the South Korean Defense Ministry, according to JoonAng Daily.

The talks, in the border area of Panmunjom, held amid pressure from China and the US to reopen dialogue, were meant as a preliminary step toward six-party nuclear talks.

They were the first since the Yeonpyeong island bombing that killed four South Koreans last November, and the sinking last March of the South Korean corvette, the Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors.

Some worry North Korea may now stage another nuclear test, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Its first test came during a break in six-party talks in 2006, while George W. Bush as president was pursuing what the North saw as a hardline policy.

The North’s delegation refused to take any responsible action for the Cheonan sinking and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island. The South Korean government had on Tuesday, the first day of talks, specified the North would have to take responsibility to move to higher-level talks, according to JoonAng.

“The North Korean delegation left, crossing over the military demarcation line at 2:50 in the afternoon today, and a schedule for another meeting could not be set,” Kim Min-seok, a Ministry of National Defense spokesman, said Wednesday. “For now, the talks are ruptured.”

The North’s delegation returned over the border during the lunch break, according to the defense ministry, then decided to end things 12 minutes after the afternoon round began.

Meanwhile, the countries' Red Cross agencies were due to discuss family reunions at the request of the north, which is concerned about the effects of international sanctions and a near-halt to trade with its neighbor.

But according to CNN, the resumption of these humanitarian talks may also be in jeopardy because of the collapse in military talks.

Seoul earlier Wednesday sent a message to the North saying that it agreed in principal to hold humanitarian talks, according to the Unification Ministry.

"We conveyed our agreement to hold the Red Cross talks," said Lee Jong-joo, a spokeswoman for South Korea's unification ministry, The Guardian reported. "The government shared the view on the urgency and importance of humanitarian issues, including the reunions of separated families."

Hundreds of thousands of people were separated during the war. More than 20,000 elderly South Koreans have been briefly reunited with relatives from the North over the past 10 years, but many among the 80,000 others may die before they are given the chance to meet relatives they last saw six decades ago.

Rival Koreas gear up for talks this week to ease tension

http://www.reuters.com

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak attends a live talk show broadcast which was directed by the office of the president at the presidential Blue House in Seoul February 1, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Blue House/Handout

By Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korean military officers will meet this week at a truce village on their heavily fortified border in a test of a pledge by the North to ease tension after a major security crisis last year.

Regional powers have nudged the rivals to defuse the crisis and restart international talks over the North's nuclear program. The two Koreas are still technically at war because an armistice not a treaty ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

The meeting will be the first dialogue between them since last September, and the first since tension peaked on the peninsula late last year.

Last March, South Korea accused the North of sinking one of its navy ships killing 46 sailors.

Then in November, the North bombarded a South Korean island in disputed waters off the west coast, leading to an angry exchange of threats and a risk of major conflict that rattled financial markets.

The two sides agreed last week to hold a preliminary round of military talks on February 8 to set the time and agenda for higher-level talks, possibly between their defense ministers.

South Korea said a formal apology for what it saw as the blatant North Korean provocations last year was not needed for it to consider going ahead with the higher-level talks.

"You don't have colonels talking about apologizing," a South Korean official said, referring to the officers who will meet Tuesday.

North Korea threatened nuclear war on the peninsula at the height of tension but in a sharp change of tack, it has repeatedly called for dialogue with the South since January.

Some analysts say the about face is an indication that the North is suffering from years of international sanctions and a cut in aid from the South.

The South has said it wants to see whether the North is sincere about reducing tension and agreed to the meetings on the condition that they discuss the navy ship sinking and island bombardment.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said last week he was willing to consider meeting the North's leader at a summit in a softening of the South's tone after months of tough talk that included a vow to retaliate if the North attacked again.

Lee cut off a decade of unconditional aid to the North when he took office in 2008, angering the North, which analysts said had come to depend on his liberal predecessors' policy of using aid to keep their unpredictable neighbor engaged.

Lee said he had high expectations that the North would abandon the tactic of staging hostile acts to raise tension, then seeking dialogue with the wealthy South to win concessions.

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

Gold glory for Koreans at Asian Games

By Alexander Fedorets (AFP)

ALMATY, Kazakhstan — South Korean athletes won five gold medals on Wednesday at the Asian Winter Games to rival hosts Kazakhstan, who also increased their gold collection by winning three events.

Kazakhstan have grabbed 13 gold medals and 37 overall, while South Korea have 10 gold and 23 overall. China are in third place, winning eight gold medals so far.

Nordic skier Lee Chae-Won of South Korea opened the day's account for South Korea finishing first in the women's 10 km freestyle event.

The 29-year-old clocked a time of 36 minutes 34.6 seconds to finish 41 sec ahead of Japan's Masako Ishida and Yuki Kobayashi, who were second and third respectively crossing the finish line with a winning margin of just 0.1sec.

Another South Korean woman, Park Seunghi, added gold to her team's collection, winning the women's short track 1000 metre race finishing just 0.3sec ahead of her second-placed compatriot Cho Ha Ri. Lui Quihong of China was third.

Noh Seonyeong and Lee Seung Hoon also supplied gold medals to South Korea's haul, winning the women's and men's mass start competitions in speed skating.

China's Song Weilong, meanwhile, won the men's 1000m short track event. Silver medalist Daisuke Uemura finished 30sec back, while third-placed Sung Si Bak of South Korea was more than a minute off the pace.

China also won the women's short track 3000m relay, while South Korea finished first in the men's 5000m relay event.

In the men's 15km freestyle distance Japan's Keishin Yoshida and Nobu Naruse dominated the event setting up a one-two finish for their country. Nikolay Chebotko of Kazakhstan was third almost two minutes behind the winner.

Japan's ski jumpers were in a class of their own in winning the team K125 contest with a total of 837.6 points, 43.6 points ahead of the second-placed team Kazakhstan.

South Korea were third 24 points behind the hosts.

The head coach of Japan team Kenji Suda said he was happy both with the results and his team's performance at the Asian Games.

"I'm happy we managed to repeat our success of the 2003 Games and win the team event here," he said. "The weather today wasn't perfect for jumping but our team performed as a single whole and deservedly won. We were just the strongest team today."

Mongolia dominated their opening match of the Asian Games' bandy tournament against Kyrgyzstan at the famous Medeu ice rink in the suburbs of Almaty.

The Kyrgyz squad failed to supply any serious opposition to the Mongols, who netted 13 unanswered goals in the first half.

After the break Mongolia eased the pressure allowing their rivals to score a couple of consolation goals. However, Mongolia's lead was never in doubt as they gained a well-deserved 17-2 win.

Local veteran biathlete Alexandr Chervyakov missed five targets in the men's 12.5km pursuit course but made up for it with his skiing to win his second gold medal at the Games after his success in Tuesday's sprint.

Junji Nagai of Japan and China's Ren Long finished second and third respectively.

Kazakhstan athletes underlined their supremacy in ski orienteering winning both the women's and men's middle distances with Olga Novikova, who also won sprint on Monday, and Mikhail Sorokin clinching the gold medals in their sections.

Two other local favourites Yevgenia Kuzmina and Vitaly Lilichenko grabbed silver medals in women's and men's races respectively.

China's Liu Xiaoting was third in women's event, while Bijan Kangarloo of Iran was a surprise bronze medal winner in men's race.

"I didn't expect to win any medals today," radiant Iranian said. "This was my third consecutive competitive day and the race was really hard. Now I'm tired but happy to win the medal. It's a really pleasant surpise!"

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.

South Korea: "These talks will be different"

Analysis: With the two Koreas set to discuss "military issues," the South puts on show of might.

By Donald Kirk — Special to GlobalPost http://www.globalpost.com

A North Korean soldier looks at the South side at the truce village of Panmunjom in the
Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas on Jan. 19, 2011.

SEOUL, South Korea — First comes the crisis, then come the talks.

The routine is so familiar — calling for talks, calling them off, and round again — it’s hard to sense any genuine enthusiasm for the recently announced meeting between the two prickly Korean neighbors.

Hours after U.S. President Barack Obama and China's President Hu Jintao expressed joint concern over North Korea's nuclear program in a statement this week, the North requested a meeting to discuss "military issues." The South wasted no time in accepting.

Now South Korea is calling for talks to take place next week — and the two defense ministers will likely meet next month.

But even if these talks do reach liftoff, it's not at all clear they will help ease the tension caused by the North's sinking of a South Korean navy ship in March and the artillery barrage of Yeonpyeong Island in November. Not to mention the one-two punch in which the North unveiled a new nuclear reactor immediately prior to shelling Yeongpyeong.

South Korean officials have sworn that these talks, this time, will be different. But it's hard to see how that could be true.

In the past, the way the pattern has played out, said a South Korean official who wished to remain nameless, goes a little something like this: “North Korea provokes, tension arises, North Korea suggests we resume dialogue, South Korea accepts and gives aid. ... That’s the pattern of the past."

But that’s not going to happen again, he said. This time, “North Korea must make more clear and specific remarks.”

Meanwhile, the South will take “anticipated steps” to increase its strength — a warning that things “will be different from the past 20 to 30 years.”

This time, South Korea won't fall for promises. No way, say officials, will the South shower North Korea with food, fertilizer and other forms of aid as was done in the decade of left/liberal leadership before conservative President Lee Myung-bak came to power three years ago.

The last thing South Korea wants is to give the impression it's about to accept the North’s demand for returning to six-party talks without preconditions. They’re sticking to their original demand — that North Korea apologize for the sinking of the Cheonan and shelling Yeonpyeong.

“We have a natural sequence,” said the official at the Blue House, the center of presidential power. “First you have to admit what you did. Second you have to apologize, and third you have to promise not to commit such an offense again." And you do not “talk about humanitarian assistance,” he said, at least “without mentioning anything” in return.

Moreover, he added, “North Korea clearly understands.” Just how much it understands, however, remains to be seen.

North Korea has acknowledged the attack on Yeonpyeong, but said it was provoked by South Korean marine exercises in North Korean waters. The North, however, has repeatedly denied any complicity in the sinking of the Cheonan — in much the same way it once denied anything to do with enriched uranium. It isn't likely all of a sudden to turn around and acknowledge its role in the attack.

Clever diplomats may manage to get around the issue of apologizing with some artful expressions of general regret, but there’s still the overriding question of the North’s nuclear program.

Officials here are treating the mere mention of concern about the North’s uranium enrichment program by Obama and Hu as a triumph. It’s hard to see how this will directly translate into the North giving up its beloved nukes, though.

South Korean officials view denuclearization of the North as “the most important pending security issue.” North Korea for its part isn’t saying a thing about its nuclear program.

If there is any indication that things are different, it may be seen in South Korea's unprecedented rescue operation Friday. After much hesitation, the South Korean navy stormed a South Korean freighter that a band of Somali pirates had hijacked and been holding for a week.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak treated the rescue by South Korean commandos, in which eight pirates died, five were captured and all 21 crew members were rescued, as a great victory for South Korea as well as a lesson for North Korea.

Lee did not miss the opportunity to show he is willing to deploy military force, as he put it on national television, against “any behavior that threatens the lives and safety of our people in the future.”

Nobody is going to forget that episode when the Korean defense ministers meet.

North Korea Asks South For Dialogue

http://www.nytimes.com

By MARTIN FACKLER

TOKYO — North Korea on Monday invited the South to talks on economic ties. It was the North’s first formal offer of dialogue with South Korea since its lethal artillery bombardment of a South Korean island in November.

The South quickly rejected the offer, and made a counteroffer to meet first to discuss the artillery attack and the sinking earlier last year of a South Korean warship.

The North’s invitation, made through its state-run media, came as the reclusive Communist state has repeatedly made general appeals for dialogue, easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula that had seemed to reach a dangerous level after the November shelling. However, Monday’s offer was the first one that offered a specific time and topic.

That attack, on Yeonpyeong Island, killed four South Koreans and stirred intense public anger in the South against North Korea.

The North proposed that the two Koreas hold working-level talks on Jan. 27 to prepare the way for a higher-level meeting on Feb. 1 to discuss economic ties.

The South’s Unification Ministry, which manages inter-Korean ties, quickly rebuffed the offer as a ploy by the economically destitute North to win aid. It made a counteroffer for talks on the shelling of the island and the March sinking of the warship Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors.

The ministry said it wanted first to confirm the North’s sincerity in taking responsibility for the attacks. It said it also wanted assurances that such attacks would not happen again.

A version of this article appeared in print on January 11, 2011, on page A6 of the New York edition.

North, South Korea Call for Peace

VOA News 01 January 2011

http://www.voanews.com

Photo: AP South Korean border guards patrol the fence-line at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, 01 Jan 2011

North Korea is calling for better relations with South Korea in the new year, while South Korea's president says he is confident peace can be established on the Korean peninsula.

In a New Year's Day editorial carried in state-owned media, communist North Korea said tensions with the democratic South should be defused "as early as possible." But it also warned that war on the Korean peninsula would "bring nothing but a nuclear holocaust."

The editorial said that common interests of the two Koreas should be promoted "above anything else." It said the "danger of war should be removed" from the peninsula.

In South Korea, President Lee Myung-bak said in a televised New Year's address that he is "confident" there will be peace on the peninsula and that South Korea will "continue sustained economic growth."

The conciliatory New Year's messages contrast sharply with recent military threats and war-like actions of the two Koreas. In November, North Korea fired artillery shells at South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island, killing four. South Korea, in turn, recently staged live-fire exercises on the island.

In March last year, 46 South Korean sailors were killed in a torpedo attack on their warship. An international panel concluded that the North fired the warhead, although North Korea has rejected the claim.

South Korea said at the end of 2010 that it would continue in the new year to prepare for reunification of the two Koreas. But Mr. Lee also cited his country's economic prosperity that is in marked contrast to that in impoverished North Korea. He said South Korea "has now emerged as a hub of free trade."

For its part, North Korea also envisions reunification of the two Koreas, but under its rule. In its New Year's statement, North Korea described the South's democratic vision for one Korea as "anti-reunification" and "treachery."

Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.

Top US Officer Says Risk of War Rising in Koreas

Top US military officer says risk of war or hostilities rising on Korean peninsula

http://abcnews.go.com

The Associated Press
By ANNE GEARAN AP National Security Writer

The danger of war or hostilities is rising on the Korean peninsula, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is "a very unpredictable guy," the top U.S. military officer said Monday.

Adm. Mike Mullen said North Korea has raised the ante in its aggression against South Korea.

Mullen told troops in Iraq that the old tit for tat pattern with North Korea has changed.

"It's changed out there, and it's dangerous. Increasingly dangerous," Mullen said during an informal question and answer session with troops.

He said the North's provocations are tied to preparations for Kim's son to take power.

China is the only nation with the power to rein in North Korea, and it should do so, Mullen said. He made that point during visits to South Korea and Japan last week. China has so far done little to condemn its traditional ally for actions that include the sinking of a South Korean warship and the shelling of a disputed island.

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North Korea Threatens New Attack

Concerns of Escalation Rise After Pyongyang Warns of 'Deadlier' Response If South Proceeds With Drills on Shelled Island

By EVAN RAMSTAD

SEOUL—North Korea warned Friday that it would attack South Korea more violently than it did last month if Seoul proceeds with plans to test-fire artillery from the island Pyongyang shelled.

The statement raises the stakes on what was already seen as a risky test of the fortitude of both Koreas to dispute the inter-Korean maritime border. Officials in the U.S., Russia and at the United Nations Friday expressed concern that the situation on the Korean peninsula could escalate out of control.

The Korean People's Army said in a statement relayed by the North's state media that its response this time "will be deadlier than what was made on Nov. 23 in terms of the powerfulness and sphere of the strike."

Four South Koreans died, including two civilians, when North Korea fired approximately 170 artillery rounds on Yeonpyeong, an island in the Yellow Sea just a few miles away from the North Korean coastline.

North Korea's latest statement also reiterated North Korea's claim of waters that have long been controlled by South Korea near Yeonpyeong and four other islands. North Korea said South Korea and the U.S. "had better cogitate" about its warning.

South Korea's military and government didn't immediately respond.

The South Korean military announced Thursday it would again stage its monthly artillery test from a marine post on Yeonpyeong sometime between Saturday and Tuesday, depending on weather and other conditions.

South Korea wants to assert its hold of islands and water it has controlled since the end of the Korean War in the 1950s, but Seoul officials and the public are wary of actions that would escalate the matter into a broader conflict.

Officials in the U.S., South Korea's closest military ally since the Korean War, also worry about retaliation spiraling, and held meetings with senior Chinese and Russian leaders.

In Beijing, Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg met Thursday with China's top foreign affairs official, State Councilor Dai Bingguo. In Moscow, Russia's Foreign Ministry on Friday summoned the U.S. and South Korean ambassadors to warn against the test firing.

Still, the Obama administration stressed that it stood behind South Korea's right to conduct its military exercises. Washington again turned up pressure on Beijing and Moscow to do more to constrain North Korea.

"We want to see other countries, including China, Russia and others, send a clear message to North Korea to cease its provocations," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. "A country has every right to train and exercise its military in its own self-defense."

According to Chinese state media, Mr. Dai, who visited North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang last week, said he believed the so-called six-party talks should be expanded to handle matters including the current dispute between the two Koreas. The diplomatic process began in 2003 to persuade North Korea to halt its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

The Obama administration has resisted Chinese calls for an imminent return to six-party talks; U.S. officials said such diplomacy at this time could be seen as rewarding Pyongyang for bad behavior. And they stressed that North Korea must take steps first to reduce tensions with South Korea.

North Korea's foreign minister was in Moscow for talks early this week, after which Moscow called for resuming the six-party talks.

Separately, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a press conference Friday, "I am increasingly and deeply concerned about the situation in the Korean peninsula." Mr. Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, said he hopes calm can be restored through "dialogue," but declined to answer a question on whether he agreed with Russia's request to South Korea to call off the test.

Pyongyang has chafed for years over the inter-Korean maritime boundary drawn at the end of the Korean War of the 1950s, which puts Yeonpyeong in South Korean waters. The maritime boundary forces North Korea commercial and military vessels to make a long trip westward before reaching open sea.

The Obama administration also continued to distance itself Friday from a visit to Pyongyang this week by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

The State Department said the former U.S. congressman, one of a small number of former U.S. officials who receives invitations from North Korea's regime, had notified Washington about his trip. But U.S. officials stressed that he wasn't carrying any message from Mr. Obama, nor was he playing some interlocutor role.

—Jay Solomon and Joe Lauria contributed to this article.

Rising Pitch

Voices on escalating Korea tensions, on Thursday and Friday

South Korea: 'We will react firmly and strongly to any fresh North Korean provocations.'

North Korea: 'The puppet military warmongers should ... stop the planned provocative maritime shelling.'

U.S.: 'A country has every right to train and exercise its military in its own self-defense.'

Russia: 'We strongly call on South Korea to refrain from holding the planned artillery firing.'

China: 'The six-party talks are the only effective way to solve the peninsular issues.'

—WSJ Research

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A10

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