US, Japan Discuss North Korean Nuclear Crisis

Tokyo, Jan. 19 2003 (VOA News) -- A top U.S. envoy to Asia has held talks with Japan's foreign minister about ways defuse the stand-off over North Korea's nuclear program.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly met in Tokyo with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, who said afterwards that his government would support U.S. initiatives on North Korea, including security guarantees to the Pyongyang government.

Mr. Kelly told reporters that he went into great detail about how the United States and its allies can work to bring North Korea back into compliance with international nuclear nonproliferation agreements.

On Friday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said the United States has "no hostile intentions" toward North Korea and might put that in writing, if Pyongyang stops its nuclear program.

North Korea says it wants a formal nonaggression pact with the United States. However, U.S. officials say the U.S. Congress would not approve such a deal, because North Korea reneged on its 1994 agreement to freeze its nuclear program.

South Korean President-elect Roh Moo-hyun says he is relieved the United States is committed to finding a peaceful solution. Mr. Roh says he had concerns some U.S. officials were considering the possibility of a military option until this month. The future president did not say how he knew about such discussions.

The U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Thomas Hubbard, said in Seoul Sunday that the United States would consider economic cooperation to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.

Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov is in Pyongyang to discuss a Kremlin proposal that calls for resumption of economic aid to the North in return for pledges to keep the Korean peninsula nuclear-free.

-- Voice of America
-- Reprinted with the permission of Voice of America