Roh stresses Seoul’s role with North

The first order of official business for President Roh Moo-hyun yesterday was to call on the international community to find a peaceful resolution to the North Korean nuclear problem. He also stressed Korea’s role in those efforts in a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi immediately after the inaugural ceremony. His spokeswoman, Song Kyong-hee, said he told Mr. Koizumi that he would not agree to any resolution to an issue of critical importance to Korea that does not meet with acceptance by the Korean people.
Mr. Roh also was upbeat about Korea’s relations with the United States, Ms. Song said, during a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. Mr. Roh reportedly said he had trouble understanding reports of conflict between the two countries. “Whatever differences there are,” Mr. Roh reportedly told the U.S. official, “they can be resolved through dialogue.”
Equally firmly, though, Mr. Roh pledged to oppose any use of force by the United States in trying to push Pyeongyang to give up its nuclear weapons program. He evidently did not hear the answer he wanted. Mr. Powell later told a press conference, “I said to President Roh that you cannot ever remove an option that is available to you.” But the United States is not on the verge of military conflict with North Korea, Mr. Powell said, reiterating Washington’s position that it had no intention of invading the North. Regime change in North Korea has never been a policy objective of the United States, Mr. Powell added, despite U.S. disdain for a government that starves its people.
Mr. Powell also said that the United States would resume food aid to North Korea, beginning with a shipment of 40,000 tons, with “another 60,000 tons or more” this year. He said, “We will be working with the international donor community to ensure that needy people receive the food.”
The United States donated more than 150,000 tons of food to North Korea last year, but has complained about North Korean limits on the activities of international agencies’ distribution of the food.
Kathi Zellweger, director of the Caritas-Hong Kong, a private charity organization active in the North, said yesterday that World Food Program officials would leave Pyeongyang when food donations are used up. She said that might happen in May.
Mr. Roh also met with Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Qian Qichen and the president of Russia’s upper legislative house, Sergei Mironov.

by Park Shin-hong