KOREA: South May Urge China to Get North to Enter Four-Way Talks

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, May 7 1996 (IPS) - With North Korea yet to respond a call by the United States and South Korea for four-nation talks to reach a peace treaty on the Korean peninsula, Seoul is now expected to press Beijing to try to bring Pyongyang to the negotiating table.

The issue of peninsula security is due to be raised when the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) holds a high level meeting in Jakarta starting on Friday. China, the United States and South Korea will all be represented at the meeting, the latter two as ‘dialogue partners’.

It is now more than three weeks since U.S. President Bill Clinton and his South Korean counterpart Kim Young Sam proposed the four nation talks involving North Korea and China, and while Pyongyang initially said it is considering the “feasibility” of the proposal, there has been no further word.

“It is however not unrealistic to expect Pyongyang to join the four-way talks,” Jong-Han Kim, a South Korean attorney wrote in a column carried by the daily ‘Korea Herald’. “But,” he went on, “Pyongyang’s…real intentions might be different from those of Seoul and Washington,”.

He and other observers note that reports out of Pyongyang have hardly been about the proposed talks, but rather have focused on the serious food shortages now being faced in the North.

“The most important concern for North Korea now is its own survival. There is a shift from its earlier ambitions of spearheading the unification process,” said a U.S. analyst in Japan.

Other analysts however believe the Pyongyang authorities, by harping on the food shortages, are trying to “frighten” Washington into sending in more aid now, and to stretch out any negotiations while getting the international community to help North Korea out of its current economic crisis.

“What they are desperate for is money. By resisting and threatening to pour cold water on the four-way dialogue the crafty North Korean leaders aim at frightening the Americans to agree with to pour in more aid,” explained professor Masao Okonogi, a respected Japanese expert on Korean political affairs.

Previously, the United States, Japan and South Korea have all come to the assistance of North Korea — all hoping their efforts would help to ease tension along the Korean peninsula.

Since the signing of an accord in October 1994 to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear programme, the United States has dispatched oil and corn to Pyongyang; Japan pledged 300,000 tonnes of rice and South Korea supplied 150,000 tonnes of rice at no cost.

But recent calls by international relief agencies for more food aid have largely gone unanswered, with Seoul in particular not satisfied that Pyongyang has made any effort to begin talks on a formal peace treaty replacing the armistice that was agreed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean war.

Japan, which also is a ‘dialogue partner’ in ARF, has also been reluctant to resume food aid to the North.

Okonogi, who teaches at Keio University in Tokyo, believes that Pyongyang sees its best chances as hinging on cultivating closer ties with the United States — hence its insistence thus far on bilateral as opposed to quadrilateral talks.

“It’s always difficult to predict anything when dealing with Pyongyang. But the proposal could be an opportunity for the North Koreans who are desperate to develop close ties with Washington,” said Okonogi.

China has in principle agreed to be a partner in the four- nation talks, but has indicated that Pyongyang would have to make up its own mind — suggesting Beijing has no influence over the Communist nation.

Both the U.S. and South Korean representatives at the Jakarta meeting are nonetheless expected to press China to lean on the North.

South Korea’s foreign ministry issued a statement Monday saying that deputy foreign minister Cho Won II planned to update the 12 member ARF about the political and security situation on the peninsula.

“He will also raise the recently proposed four-way talks to negotiate a permanent peace regime on the peninsula,” the South Korean foreign ministry added.

ARF comprises the seven countries of the Association of South- east Asian Nations — Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore and the Philippines — China, Russia, Laos Papua New Guinea and Cambodia.

Besides South Korea, United States and Japan, the other dialogue partners include Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the European Union.