Speeches and Transcripts
(Yonhap Interview) U.S. to take 'multi-track' approach on N. Korea: Stephens
By Lee Chi-dong
 |
|
| Ambassador Stephens, in a July 12 interview with Yonhap News, talks on current issues at her office, U.S. Embassy, Seoul. |
SEOUL, July 12 (Yonhap) -- The United States will continue to take a "multi-track" approach in dealing with North Korea, enforcing sanctions but also seeking dialogue and showing flexibility, Washington's top envoy here said.
Amb. Kathleen Stephens reaffirmed that the Barack Obama administration holds fast to the goal of denuclearizing North Korea through the six-way talks also joined by South Korea, China, Russia, and Japan.
"The United States will not... accept the notion of North Korea possessing nuclear weapons capability," Stephens said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Friday at her office in Seoul.
The ambassador also indicated that the U.S. would be willing to negotiate more room for South Korea's civilian nuclear program through future consultations.
Stephens stressed that on North Korea, the U.S. will "continue to keep the door open for a return to diplomacy, a return to dialogue."
The end goal is getting results, Stephens said on showing flexibility toward Pyongyang. "We don't have a very rigid sense that something must be done exactly one way or the other."
"But what we do insist on is that, one, dialogue and diplomacy is the best way to resolve this, and two, it does have to be on the principle that at the end of the day, we want to see a denuclearized Korean Peninsula."
 |
|
| Ambassador Stephens, in a July 12 interview with Yonhap News, talks on current issues at her office, U.S. Embassy, Seoul. |
Pyongyang has been upping the ante for months since Obama took office early this year. It fired a long-range rocket in April that was viewed by South Korea, the U.S. and their allies as a disguised missile test. The following month, it conducted its second nuclear test and coupled its belligerent behavior with threats to further bolster its atomic arsenal and abandon the six-party talks.
Stephens said the U.S. was still analyzing the North's May 25 nuclear test, which had "a force of several kilotons."
The U.S. will take steps to implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874, adopted to punish the North for the atomic test, and will also weigh further countermeasures at the national level, she said.
The ambassador said the U.S. is trying to share information with other nations on North Korea's illicit trade and financial transactions, adding a recent trip to China and Malaysia by Philip Goldberg, U.S. coordinator for the implementation of the resolution, was a part of those efforts.
Stephens dismissed growing doubts about the efficacy of the six-way talks, citing progress both in substance and in advancing the negotiating process.
"I think over the last several years, the efforts of the parties to work together on a common problem central to peace and stability in the region has been a process that has developed, and we need to continue to build on that development," she said. "I think that we have developed a habit of cooperation that we need to continue to strengthen."
The Sept. 19, 2005 agreement at the six-party talks, in which the North pledged to give up all its nuclear weapons and programs in return for a package of political and economic incentives, is the "best description" of the desired results, said Stephens.
 |
|
| Ambassador Stephens, in a July 12 interview with Yonhap News, talks on current issues at her office, U.S. Embassy, Seoul. |
"We have not given up on that. We may need to adjust both our process and our negotiating approach but I think we still have the right parties involved and I think we still have the right goals in mind," she said.
Stephens, who first established personal ties with South Korea decades ago as a Peace Corp volunteer, came back as a diplomat last year as Seoul and Washington began to sort through a series of issues to update their alliance, which stretches back to the 1950-53 Korean War.
One of the upcoming tasks will be negotiating the expansion of South Korea's civilian nuclear program.
Under a 1974 accord with the U.S., South Korea is banned from enriching uranium and reprocessing spent fuel. The two sides plan to begin talks to revise the agreement later this year, as it is set to expire in 2014,
Stephens said the U.S. "clearly understands" that nuclear energy is very important to South Korea, which depends heavily on oil imports for its energy needs.
The two countries have "a longstanding and continuing tradition" of consulting on peaceful civilian nuclear energy, she said, pointing out that it was mentioned in a joint statement issued after the South Korea-U.S. summit in Washington last month.
"The science changes on these things as well and that's why it's kind of a continual process of making sure that we are well-coordinated, and that we have a clear understanding of the way to go forward," she said.
"We need to have even deeper consultations and cooperation."
 |
|
| Ambassador Stephens, in a July 12 interview with Yonhap News, talks on current issues at her office, U.S. Embassy, Seoul. |
Stephens also said the allies should focus on preparing for the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) over South Korean troops back to Seoul in 2012 as scheduled, rather than talking about setting a new deadline.
OPCON was handed over to the U.S. immediately after the outbreak of the Korean War. Some conservatives in South Korea, concerned that the transfer will send the wrong signal to North Korea, want it delayed.
The ambassador recommended they approach the issue differently.
The right question is whether the transfer in 2012 will be the right step at the right time to strengthen the alliance, "not 'Is this going to do no harm?'," Stephens said.
"I think the progress we've made to date gives us great confidence that we can indeed achieve this shared goal of operational control transfer because it is the right thing for today's world," she said.
The ambassador urged North Korea to grant amnesty to the two American journalists detained there, and to treat this as a "humanitarian case."
The two female reporters from Current TV, a San Francisco-based Web media outlet, were arrested in March near the North Korean border with China while doing a story on North Korean defectors. The North last month sentenced them to 12 years of hard labor for entering the country illegally and for unspecified "hostile acts."
One of the reporters, Laura Ling, telephoned her sister in California on Thursday and said they did commit a crime and that a government pardon is their only hope for freedom.
"They have gone through the court system and we would like to see an amnesty and their immediate release. I hope they (the North Korean government) will listen to the appeals of our government that they treat this as a humanitarian case," Stephens said.
She would not go into details about the U.S. efforts to win their release, amid reports that Washington may send a high-level envoy to Pyongyang.
lcd@yna.co.kr
(END)