Rumsfeld: North Korean nuclear proliferation a threat to world
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-06-04 16:25

US Defense Secretary Donald Rusmfeld conceded he had no idea how North Korea might be persuaded to resume negotiations on its nuclear weapons program as allies debated the next steps if Pyongyang continues to shun six-party talks.

"I have no way of knowing what might conceivably finally persuade the people in the North to behave in a way that is more consistent with the behavior of other countries in the world," Rumsfeld told an international conference on Asia security Saturday.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, left, talks with Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Istana, or Presidential Palace in Singapore Saturday, June 4, 2005.[AP]

"My hope is that the countries in the six-party talks will continue to be persuasive, try to be more persuasive with them and that they will see it is in their interest to enter those discussions," he said.

Rumsfeld made the comment in response to questions following a speech in which he warned that Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions threaten the security not just of the region, but of the world.

Given North Korea's record in selling ballistic missile technologies, as well as trafficking in illegal drugs and counterfeit currency, he said "one has to assume that they will sell anything and they would be willing to sell nuclear technologies."

North Korea has boycotted the talks with the United States, South Korea, Japan, China, and Russia for the past year to protest what it regards as a hostile US policy.

"You ask what are the alternatives (to the six-party talks.) Well it seems to me that is a question for the world to ask," Rumsfeld said.

"It requires the United Nations to ask itself if it wants to have a role in trying to avoid allowing the kind of proliferation that is threatened. No one country can do that. It requires the cooperation of many countries," he said.

South Korean Defense Minister Yoon Kwang Ung told the conference he was confident his government would be able to persuade Pyongyang to rejoin the talks, noting that the North was dependent on South Korean economic support.

He said a South Korean delegation was traveling to Pyongyang on June 15 and would be hosting a North Korean ministerial level delegation in Seoul between June 21-24.

In between those meetings, South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun will meet in Washington with President George W. Bush.

"We are confident we will be successful with this kind of peaceful means, that we can persuade North Korea to come back to six-party talks," he said.

He indicated that South Korea wanted to avoid taking the issue to the UN Security Council.

"I'd like to emphasize we are the on-the-spot nation directly related to the North Korea nuclear issue," he said.

"If it goes the wrong way, we will lose all economic infrastructure as well as the value of the lives of more than 40 million people in Korea."

Japanese Minister of State for Defense Yoshinori Ohno, however, warned that there was growing sentiment in favor of international sanctions against North Korea if it persists in boycotting the six-party talks.

"North Korea should recognize that if it refuses to participate in the six-party talks, chances might be large that this problem will be raised up in the framework of the United Nations Security Council," he said.

"And then what would happen, I'm not sure."

If North Korea returns to the talks, and the nuclear issue is resolved, the international community will help it out of its serious economic problems, he said.

In February North Korea announced that it had nuclear weapons, and claimed it has unloaded 8,000 spent fuel rods from its reactor that could be reprocessed into weapons-grade plutonium.

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