NORTH KOREA: President George Bush dangled an olive branch in front of North Korea yesterday, offering to revive a long-stalled "bold initiative" to help Pyongyang if it abandoned its nuclear ambitions.
"We expect them not to develop nuclear weapons, and if they so choose to do so - their choice - then I will reconsider whether or not we will start the bold initiative that I talked . . . about," said Mr Bush.
His comments were the latest signal of US interest in re-opening discussions with North Korea to resolve the nuclear standoff that began when US officials said Pyongyang had admitted to pursuing a nuclear weapons program.
The crisis escalated as the North Koreans expelled International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, pulled out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and threatened to resume missile testing.
Although the US has insisted it would not offer North Korea concessions or inducements to roll back those decisions and its nuclear program, it has signalled a willingness to pursue dialogue to resolve the confrontation.
Mr Bush reaffirmed his determination to seek a peaceful answer and appeared to take a step back from his previously stated unwillingness to engage with North Korea.
"I'm absolutely convinced this issue will be solved in a peaceful way," he said.
"People say, 'Well, are you willing to talk to North Korea?' Of course we are," Mr Bush said. "But what this nation won't do is be blackmailed."
He pointed out that before North Korea's recent actions he had instructed Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, to approach Pyongyang about "an initiative which would talk about energy and food because we care deeply about the suffering of the North Korean people."
Yesterday, Mr Powell spoke of the need for a "new arrangement" regarding North Korean/US relations and the need for nuclear compliance. In June, 2001, Mr Bush offered a comprehensive dialogue with the North as part of a "bold approach" in which the United States would take steps to improve the lives of the North Korean people through an easing of sanctions and other political steps.
Assistant Secretary of State, Mr James Kelly, travelled to North Korea last October to discuss the initiative in the first significant high-level contact between Washington and Pyongyang since Bush took office in January 2001.
But during those talks Mr Kelly said North Korea confirmed a hitherto secret highly enriched uranium program and engagement broke off. The North Koreans have since denied ever making such a statement. Pyongyang said yesterday that direct talks with the US were the only way to end its nuclear crisis and dismissed worldwide condemnation of its nuclear brinkmanship.
"The nuclear issue is a bilateral issue that can only be peacefully resolved through negotiations between the principle parties," the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
The White House, meanwhile, welcomed both China's offer yesterday to host talks between the United States and North Korea over their nuclear standoff and Russia's plans to send a top official to key capitals to help find a diplomatic solution.
"I view this as an opportunity to bind together nations in the neighbourhood and around the world to make it clear to the North Koreans that we expect this issue to be resolved peacefully, and we expect them to disarm," President Bush said.
The conciliatory noises from Washington - including a statement by Mr Kelly, who arrived yesterday in Beijing, that the United States might be willing to help North Korea in the energy area if it agreed to dismantle its nuclear weapons program - come after weeks of rising tension and as the Bush administration is contemplating disarming Iraq by military force.
White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer refused to characterise them as concessions or inducements, saying North Korea needed to dismantle its nuclear programs as the first step. "North Korea has got to put itself back into compliance." - (Reuters)