World leaders pressure Pyongyang to abide by United Nations resolution


President Lee Myung-bak rallied international support to pressure North Korea to nix its rocket launch plan during his bilateral talks with leaders of around 15 nations for the last four days.

During their separate talks with Lee on Tuesday, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard expressed their concerns over Pyongyang’s plan and concurred that the North should comply with the U.N. Security Council resolution against the use of any ballistic missile technology.

Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt also stressed that her country and EU support South Korea’s policy toward its communist neighbor.

During the talks with the Italian prime minister, Lee said that the North should open up to the outside world.

“North Korea was far better off 50 years ago with its national income being about twice as high as the South. But now North Koreans are living with (a national income of) below $1,000 while South Koreans are living with the income of around $24,000,” Lee was quoted by his spokesperson as saying.

“What we hope now is that the North will emerge as an open society like China and Vietnam. Should it come out, we will fully support that move.”

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. President Barack Obama said during their talks with Lee last weekend that the launch would further deepen the North’s isolation and economic hardships.

Earlier this month, Pyong­yang announced the plan to launch the “satellite” to mark the centennial birthday of its late founder Kim Il-sung, falling on April 15. Experts here say it is a cover for testing and upgrading the Taepodong-2 ballistic missile.

The leaders came here to attend the Nuclear Security Summit that does not specifically deal with the North Korean proliferation issue. The premier forum focuses on preventing nuclear or radioactive materials from falling into the hands of non-state actors such as terrorists.

While noting that the Seoul-Washington alliance remains robust, Obama repeated his message to Pyongyang that it would not be rewarded for provocations. The leaders of the two allies restated that the North’s pattern of launching provocations and getting rewards should be broken.

Notably, the leaders of China and Russia expressed their opposition to the rocket launch in a rare display of unity with the South. The two leaders stressed that the North should first turn its focus to enhancing the livelihoods of its people.

Experts say that Seoul’s hosting the nuclear summit just south of the heavily-fortified inter-Korean border will put Pyongyang under considerable pressure given that the summit discusses challenges to nuclear security.

Apart from discussing North Korean issues, Lee and the Italian prime minister agreed to deepen their cooperation in business and trade through the South Korea-EU free trade deal that took effect last year, according to a press release by Cheong Wa Dae.

The leaders of the two countries with diplomatic relations spanning some 128 years also expressed hopes that bilateral exchanges and investment will increase with a set of pacts on prevention of double taxation and a working holiday program, which the two countries are set to sign in April.

During the bilateral meeting between Lee and the Australian prime minister, the leaders discussed a wide range of issues such as energy, resources, climate change, green growth and trade relations.

After it tested its Taepodong-2 missile in April 2009, the North claimed that it was a satellite launch. The launch ended in failure after the rocket fell into the Pacific Ocean after traveling some 3,200 kilometers from the North’s launch site of Musudanri in North Hamgyeong Province.

Experts here argued that Pyongyang’s announcement on the “satellite launch” was a typical attempt at raising its bargaining power during negotiations with Washington over its nuclear program.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)