E-Kantipur

SEOUL, DEC 29 -  

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak called Wednesday for revived international talks to shut down North Korea's nuclear programme, apparently softening his stance towards negotiations.

"(We) have no choice but to resolve the problem of dismantling North Korea's nuclear programme diplomatically through the six-party talks," Lee said as he received a 2011 policy report from the foreign ministry.

Lee has publicly taken a tough line with the North since its deadly and destructive bombardment last month of a South Korean border island.

South Korea, the United States, and Japan have been cool to efforts by Russia and China to revive the talks with the North, to ease high tensions.

The president said the international community is pressed for time to denuclearise the North, which has set 2012 -- centenary of the birth of founder Kim Il-Sung -- as the year to become a "great, powerful and prosperous" nation.

Because of this goal, we "should certainly achieve the dismantlement of its nuclear programme next year", Lee said.

The South also accuses the North of sinking one of its warships in March near the disputed Yellow Sea border, a charge it denies.

Since the island shelling, Seoul has staged a series of military drills as a show of force and vowed to hit back hard using air power against any new attack.

Lee, however, also called for cross-border dialogue.

"We should make efforts to have peace settled through inter-Korean dialogue" while also strengthening defences, he said on receiving a separate policy report from the unification ministry which handles inter-Korean affairs.

The president also said reunification of the two Koreas is not "far off" and the ministry should work harder to persuade the public this can have benefits.

The foreign ministry report said policy in the new year would focus on winning international support for peaceful reunification.

But it said the North's ongoing power succession from leader Kim Jong-Il to his youngest son, coupled with threats of military brinkmanship, would continue to fan uncertainty on the peninsula.

Korea JoongAng Daily newspaper said the North had sharply increased its military drills this month, with a 150 percent increase over December 2009.

It said air force exercises had been unusually extensive, and a MiG fighter disappeared off radar screens last week during one drill.

The North shut down its elderly plutonium-producing reactor in 2007 under a six-nation disarmament deal. But it quit the forum in April 2009 and staged a second nuclear test a month later.

Last month it disclosed a uranium enrichment plant to visiting US experts. US officials and experts say it could easily be converted to produce weapons-grade uranium, giving the North a second way to build a bomb.

The US State Department has said the North has "at least one other" uranium enrichment site after the one it disclosed.

Pyongyang said Wednesday its new plant is designed solely to fuel a light-water reactor being built to produce energy.

"To ensure fuel supply to the reactor, a modern uranium enrichment plant equipped with thousands of centrifuges is in normal operation," ruling communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said, reiterating claims made early this month.

According to US troubleshooter Bill Richardson, who visited Pyongyang this month, the North has offered to permit the return of UN nuclear inspectors and dispose of fuel rods outside the country.

The apparent concessions have not been officially announced.

Posted on: 2010-12-29 10:23

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