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New US President to Continue Current DPRK Policy
The United States will continue its current policy towards the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), no mater who becomes the next US president.
In a speech to a symposium on Korean affairs hosted by the Asia Research Fund Tuesday, US Ambassador to South Korea Stephen Bosworth said the United States' approach to the DPRK has been based on its strong deterrent posture, extensive consultation with allies in South Korea and Japan and consultation and cooperation with both Russia and China.
Bosworth said this basic approach will continue under the next US administration, "regardless of who is the next American President."
"We will build on the progress we have already made, including progress made during the visit to Pyongyang last month by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright," said the ambassador.
The top US diplomat in Seoul said that perhaps the most dramatic evidence of the four countries' shared interest in encouraging peace and reconciliation on the Peninsula has been the flurry of summit diplomacy in and around South Korea and the DPRK.
"Most significant among these, of course, was President Kim Dae- jung's own visit to Pyongyang in June, and we share with the president the hope for an early visit to Seoul by National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il," he said.
On the Four Party Talks, the US ambassador said they were designed to bring together the four principal combatants at the Korean War -- the DPRK and South Korea, China and the United States -- to work toward the eventual replacement of the Armistice Agreement with a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
"Through six rounds of talks, we were encouraged by China's moderating role, further evidence of our shared interest in peace and stability on the Peninsula," he said.
Although there are varied and active channels for official inter-Korean dialogue, the ambassador said, "We believe that the Four Party process remains an important component of the overall drive for peace and stability on the Peninsula."
Light Water Reactors
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) called on the United States on November 26 to honor its commitments on construction of light water reactors (LWR) for the country.
The DPRK newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in a signed commentary that under a DPRK-US agreement framework, the United States should finish building the first of the two 1,000-megawat reactors of a LWR power station by 2003 and the second by 2004.
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