Lee invites a nuke-free North Korea to 2012 security summit

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Lee invites a nuke-free North Korea to 2012 security summit

Wrapping up a 47-nation nuclear security summit, U.S. President Barack Obama urged North Korea to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks, warning that international sanctions will continue unless it resumes its place at the negotiating table.

The two-day summit in Washington ended Tuesday as world leaders endorsed Obama’s call to prevent nuclear terrorism with a joint communique. In a clear rebuke to Pyongyang for defying international pressure to end its nuclear arms program, the leaders also agreed to hold a follow-up summit in South Korea in 2012.

President Lee Myung-bak also expressed hopes that the South’s hosting of the summit would help resolve the nuclear crisis on the peninsula, and invited North Korea to join - after foreswearing nuclear weapons.

“If North Korea shows its intention to give up the nuclear arms programs through the six-party talks and returns to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and respects the agreements, we will gladly invite the North to the nuclear summit,” Lee said.

While North Korea’s nuclear programs were not an agenda item for the summit, they received considerable media attention outside the formal event. In a news conference concluding the summit on Tuesday, Washington time, Obama admitted that international sanctions imposed on the North have made little progress. “Sanctions are not a magic wand,” he said. “Unfortunately, nothing in international relations is.”

He said he would continue to urge the North to return to the stalled negotiations. “North Korea has chosen a path of severe isolation that has been extraordinarily damaging to its people, and it is our hope that as pressure builds for North Korea to improve its economic performance, that we’ll see a return to the six-party talks and see a change in their behavior,” Obama said.

The six-party talks were last held in December 2008. The North declared the talks “dead” last summer, condemning United Nations sanctions imposed for its nuclear and missile tests.

“But I do think that the approach that we’ve taken with respect to North Korea makes it more likely for them to alter their behavior than had there been no consequences whatsoever to them testing a nuclear weapon,” Obama said in the news conference.

The 2012 summit in South Korea is also expected to serve as a pressure point on the North and a possible contributing factor to resolving the nuclear crisis on the peninsula. “By successfully hosting the upcoming nuclear security summit, I will do my best for our country to escape from North Korea’s nuclear threats,” Lee said.

Although the summit is focused on preventing nuclear proliferation among nonstate actors such as terrorist groups, a senior Lee administration official said South Korea’s hosting has symbolic significance.

“Leaders of about 50 countries will meet in the South, which is directly threatened by the North’s nuclear programs, and discuss measures to prevent military use of nuclear energy, so it will definitely be a burden on the North,” the official said.

Kim Tae-hyun, professor of global affairs at Chung-Ang University, said more tangible pressure will be put on the North. “It is likely that the leaders will adopt a statement through the 2012 summit to urge the North to give up its nuclear programs and return to the NPT,” he said.

Kim said hosting the summit will boost Korea’s position on the international stage. “Until now, Korea’s diplomacy was focused on the United States and management of the North Korea crisis,” he said. “But the hosting of the summit means that the country’s diplomatic horizon has broadened to the international community in general.”


By Ser Myo-ja [myoja@joongang.co.kr]
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조기 재개 압박효과..천안함 사고 돌발변수


우리나라가 제2차 핵안보정상회의를 유치하면서 6자회담 재개 흐름에도 미묘한 영향을 끼치고 있다.

차기 회의가 앞으로 2년 후인 2012년 열리고 북핵 자체가 직접적 어젠다로 오르지는 않지만 이번 서울 유치가 갖는 국제정치적 함의를 감안할 때 북핵논의 전반에 '보이지 않는' 임팩트를 가져올 가능성이 높다는 분석이다.

우선 이번 서울 유치로 북한이 느끼는 심리적 압박효과가 상당히 클 것이라는 분석이 나오고 있다.

앞으로 2년후 세계 주요 50개국 정상이 핵문제를 주제로 한반도의 남쪽에 회동한다는 '예보' 자체가 핵게임을 벌이고 있는 북한에게 커다란 중압감으로 다가서지 않겠느냐는게 소식통들의 시각이다.

정부의 핵심 소식통은 14일 "(6자회담 재개에) 긍정적인 자극이 될 것"이라며 "김정일 위원장으로서는 계속 핵개발을 하는데 부담이 될 것"이라고 말했다.
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