Campbell due in Seoul to discuss allied ties, N.K.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell is due to arrive in Seoul today for a three-day visit to discuss pressing bilateral and regional issues including North Korea`s denuclearization and allied relations, Foreign Ministry officials said yesterday.

"The talks are to touch on a wide range of bilateral issues centering on efforts for further promoting the alliance between South Korea and the United States," said Kim Young-sun, the ministry spokesman.

Campbell is to meet his counterpart Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Yong-joon and other top officials such as Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan, Unification Minister Hyun In-taek and Kim Sung-hwan, President Lee Myung-bak`s chief security aide.

Notably, the assistant secretary also will sit down with Lee Hye-min, Seoul`s chief negotiator for the free trade agreement with Washington. This deal has yet to be ratified amid opposition from the U.S. and South Korean legislatures.



In a separate meeting with Wi Sung-lac, Seoul`s negotiator for the six-nation talks aimed at North Korea`s denuclearization, Campbell is expected to discuss ways for resuming the negotiations as soon as possible, sources said. The top U.S. diplomat on East Asian and Pacific affairs visited Japan before arriving in Seoul.

His visit was timed amid mounting calls from Pyongyang to first lift the sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council in the wake of the North`s second nuclear test last year. This would be the precondition for coming out to the six-nation talks, Pyongyang`s Foreign Ministry said.

Even once the multilateral talks start, Pyongyang insists that negotiations for a peace treaty to replace the current Armistice Agreement should be prioritized before any talk of denuclearization.

The North continues to claim the lack of a peace regime is the source of its security concerns.

The reclusive regime has been boycotting the six-way discussions since April last year after the U.N. denounced its rocket launch. Since December last year, it appeared to be shifting to a reconciliatory mood, but recently conducted another about-face in its diplomatic tactics.

Seoul and Washington maintain that denuclearization must precede all other talk agendas.

"We have already communicated to the North that peace treaty talks may start as soon as it shows a genuine will to abandon its nuclear weapons programs," said one Foreign Ministry official on the condition of anonymity.

The two allies have made it a point that significant incentives including normalization of diplomatic relations and economic aid, would be offered as a quid pro quo for complete and irreversible denuclearization.

President Lee Myung-bak last week said he was willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, but stressed that the two can meet only if they agree to discuss denuclearization in earnest.

North Korea`s nuclear defiance was on the discussion table yesterday during a three-way meeting among senior officials from South Korea, China and Japan held in Beijing.

The three are all members of the six-way talks, along with the United States, Russia and North Korea.

Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Yong-joon met with Chinese Assistant Minister Hu Zheng-yue and Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Kenichiro Sasae for the fourth such meeting.

In addition to the North Korea nuclear issue, opening a secretariat for shuttle communications was another central subject for this year`s conference, according to Foreign Ministry sources here.

The three nations first explored the idea last year following a proposal from Seoul, which hopes to open the secretariat here.

China and Japan would then dispatch diplomats to the secretariat for regular meetings.

(jemmie@heraldm.com)







By Kim Ji-hyun