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Seoul asks China to help ease tensions
SEOUL, South Korea -- A senior South Korean envoy has arrived in Beijing on a mission to persuade China to get tougher with Pyongyang over its revived nuclear program. South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Tae-sik will meet Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing on Thursday as Seoul seeks to play the lead role in diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions on the Korean peninsula. Lee told Reuters television Wednesday he planned "to exchange our views with Chinese officials on how to find a constructive way out of this nuclear stalemate." Diplomats said Lee was expected to urge China, an ally that has given impoverished North Korea substantial economic aid, to play a more active role in ending the standoff. North Korea announced last week it would reactivate the Yongbyon nuclear power plant, which is capable of producing enough weapons-grade plutonium to make two or three nuclear bombs per year, and then told the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to leave the country. Seoul has been trying to regain the diplomatic initiative in the affair and prevent the matter degenerating into a potentially disastrous military conflict between the United States and North Korea. U.S. President George W. Bush has labelled North Korea as a member of an "axis of evil" along with Iraq and Iran and is refusing to negotiate with Pyongyang over its moves to revive a previously mothballed nuclear energy program. That program has the potential to create nuclear weapons. China has stressed that a dialogue between the North, Seoul and Washington is needed to seek a solution to the situation. Official Chinese media have also slammed the U.S. stance on North Korea saying the U.S. was clearly irritated at having to focus on Pyongyang when it was preparing to fight a war with Iraq. (Full story) North Korea, for its part, is maintaining a torrent of anti-U.S. rhetoric including claims that the U.S. was planning a nuclear attack on the North and a ground-force invasion. In its latest New Year statement, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency says its "people's army will wipe out the imperialist aggressors with unpredictable strike and mercilessly destroy their bulwark if they dare recklessly attack us". "The U.S. bellicose elements should clearly know that their strategy to dominate Korea is a pipe-dream, stop the provocative and military pressure and withdraw their aggression forces from South Korea without delay." (Full story) On Tuesday, South Korea's president-elect, Roh Moo-hyun, warned that the proposed U.S. policy of tough economic sanctions against Pyongyang could backfire, adding to the already high tensions on the peninsula. Food aid
"The United States should consult fully with South Korea, rather than making a decision unilaterally and then expecting South Korea to follow it," Associated Press quotes Roh saying. U.S. and South Korean officials regularly reconfirm their alliance, and deny that a rift is developing between the two close allies over handling the North's recent moves. But in the past two days, both Roh and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung expressed concern that Washington might impose heavy economic pressure on Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambitions and that this could backfire and harden the North's stance. Roh said he was "skeptical" the sanctions policy would "ever contain North Korea or make it surrender." "Success or failure of a U.S. policy toward North Korea isn't too big a deal to the American people, but it is a life-or-death matter for South Koreans," Roh told reporters. "Therefore, any U.S. move should fully consider South Korea's opinion." The U.S. does not, however, intend to stop sending food aid to North Korea as part of increased sanctions, according to a Reuters report Thursday. "We expect to continue providing the same level of aid to the (United Nations) World Food Program in Korea as we have in the past," a senior administration official said. "We don't use food as a political weapon." In the past, the United States has argued that humanitarian food aid should be isolated from geo-strategic considerations. . The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.
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