US, allies preparing package offer to NKorea: envoy

NUKEWARS

North Korea acting out like 'unruly teenagers': Clinton
North Korea's nuclear and missile threats are signs the reclusive regime is craving world attention and acting out like "unruly teenagers," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview aired Monday. Clinton, on a trip to India, acknowledged that Washington had recently dialed back against Pyongyang after the harsh US rhetoric in the immediate aftermath of North Korea's May 25 nuclear test, because it didn't want to play into the regime's attention grab. "We weren't going to give the North Koreans the satisfaction they were looking for which is to try to elevate them again to center stage," Clinton told US television network ABC. "What we've seen is this constant demand for attention, and maybe it's the mother in me or the experience that I've had with small children and unruly teenagers and people who are demanding attention. "Don't give it to them," she insisted. "They don't deserve it. They are acting out in a way to send a message that is not a message we're interested in receiving." She also downplayed the potential threat from North Korea's quiver of missiles, one of which Washington says was tested April 5. Pyongyang described it as a peaceful attempt to put an experimental satellite in orbit, but US and other nations saw it as a disguised test of a Taepodong missile, which is theoretically capable of reaching Alaska. "They're no real threat to us," Clinton said. "We know that our allies Japan and South Korea are very concerned, but we share information. "They watch what we watch and understand what's really going on there."

by Staff Writers
Seoul (AFP) July 20, 2009
The United States and its negotiating partners are preparing a "comprehensive package" of incentives to encourage North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons, a senior US envoy said Monday.

Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs, did not elaborate on the package which is still being finalised.

But he said it would require Pyongyang to take "irreversible" steps towards denuclearisation in return.

Yonhap news agency said he made his comments at a breakfast meeting with senior South Korean journalists. A US embassy spokesman confirmed the main points of the Yonhap report.

Six-nation nuclear disarmament talks grouping the two Koreas, China, Japan, the US and Russia began almost six years ago but bogged down last December.

After the United Nations Security Council censured its April 5 long-range rocket launch, the North announced it was quitting the talks and restarting its atomic weapons programme.

It staged its second nuclear test on May 25, prompting the Council to adopt a resolution imposing tougher sanctions.

South Korea's coast guard said it was drawing up a plan on how to inspect North Korean ships suspected of carrying banned weapons items.

"It is a follow-up to Seoul's joining the Proliferation Security Initiative," a coast guard spokesman said, referring to a US-led campaign launched in 2003 to stop ships suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction.

The North has said it sees Seoul's decision to join the initiative as a declaration of war.

It was unclear whether Seoul would try to stop North Korean ships in South Korean waters, and if so whether the navy or the coast guard would be used.

Campbell, on arrival from Japan Saturday, had outlined a "two-track strategy" involving tough enforcement of sanctions but also negotiations -- if the North is willing to give up its nuclear ambitions.

He said at that time the comprehensive package would be "attractive" to North Korea if it returns to the talks and takes irreversible steps to disarm.

Campbell, making his first trip to South Korea since taking over the post last month, met Seoul's nuclear negotiator Wi Sung-Lac Monday morning.

"We have to closely work together on how to implement the Security Council resolution and on the other hand... we have to think about resumption of dialogue as well," Wi told the US envoy.

Last Thursday the Council tightened sanctions further, imposing a travel ban on five North Korean officials and asset freezes on five more entities involved in the missile or nuclear programmes.

After meeting Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan Monday afternoon, Campbell was to leave for Thailand for the ASEAN Regional Forum on security issues. North Korea is expected to be high on the agenda.

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NUKEWARS

NKorea faces worst crisis since 1994: Seoul think tank
Seoul (AFP) July 17, 2009
North Korea faces its worst crisis in 15 years due to international tensions over its nuclear weapons and uncertainty about the health of leader Kim Jong-Il, a South Korean think tank said Friday. The Korea Development Institute said in a report that any breakthrough in the nuclear stand-off will be difficult, with the communist state insisting on being treated as a nuclear-armed state. ... read more

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