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Seoul says North could allow multilateral talks

Reporters and photographers peek into a cockpit of a newly arrived AH-64D Apache helicopter during a press day at the US Camp Humphreys in Pyongtack, 100km south of Seoul, yesterday. PHOTO: AP

South Korea's top official in charge of relations with North Korea said yesterday that intensifying pressure on the communist state would force it to accept a US offer for multilateral talks on halting its suspected nuclear weapons programs.

North Korea has insisted on one-one-one meetings with the US, hoping to win security guarantees and massive economic aid in exchange for giving up its nuclear programs. Washington considers Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions a regional threat and says any talks on the crisis should include China, Japan, South Korea and possibly Russia.

"Various forms of pressure on North Korea -- I wouldn't call them sanctions but rather diplomatic pressure -- would get the North to change its mind," said South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun in an interview with Seoul's CBS radio.

Jeong said talks including Japan and South Korea are "the North's only option" and that North Korea "is expected to change its attitude in one or two months."

In recent weeks, the US and its regional allies, most notably Japan and Australia, have vowed to crack down on the North Korean trade in illicit drugs, weapons and counterfeit money.

Japanese authorities have beefed up inspections of North Korean ships long suspected of smuggling missile parts and narcotics between the two countries. In the past few days, they have detained one cargo ship and blocked another from docking for safety violations.

In April, Australian authorities raided a North Korean-owned ship and charged its crew with aiding and abetting the trafficking of heroin.

Also yesterday, South Korea's mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, citing unnamed intelligence sources, said Iranian cargo planes traveled to North Korea six times since April, flying through airspace over China and Central Asia and carrying what appeared to be missile parts from Pyongyang.

The news comes seven months after a shipment of North Korean Scud missiles bound for Yemen was briefly stopped in the Arabian Sea as a US warning against North Korea's role in missile proliferation. JoongAng said North Korea now appears to be using aircraft instead of ships to export its missiles, believed to be a key source of hard currency for Pyongyang.

Seoul's Defense Ministry would not confirm the report.

Jeong's remarks echoed those of a senior Japanese official a day earlier. On Sunday, Japanese Deputy Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said that continued pressure could result in a "dramatic turn" in North Korea's policies.
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