North Korea can only be persuaded to abandon its nuclear ambitions if partners in multilateral talks due to resume later this month address the state's motivations and the impact on its stability, Seoul said yesterday.
"The most important thing is North Korea giving up its nuclear development, but there are motives and reasons why the North wants to have nuclear programs," South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said on a KBS radio program yesterday.
Song also said the regional powers at the talks needed to take into consideration how any deal would impact on the North's economic and political stability.
Meanwhile, North Korea said yesterday in a commentary in its main newspaper that it didn't intend to permanently hold nuclear weapons, but sought them because of an alleged US threat.
"Our possession of nuclear weapons is not to threaten or pressure others or make a preemptive attack," the Rodong Sinmun wrote, according to the country's official Korean Central News Agency. "If the nuclear issue is to be solved, the US' nuclear threat toward Korea and hostile policies must be retracted. This is the key point for the resolution of the nuclear issue."
North Korea agreed on Saturday to return to six-nation nuclear talks in a few weeks after refusing to attend for more than a year, citing "hostile" US policies. US officials have repeatedly denied any intention to attack the North, and recently said they recognized it as a sovereign nation.
The breakthrough on the talks came after a meeting in Beijing between the top US and North Korean envoys to the negotiations, which also include South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.
South Korea has said it has prepared a significant aid proposal for the North if it returns to the arms negotiations, but no details have been revealed.
Song said yesterday that the proposal would extend beyond financial aid.
"We are proceeding with the judgment that if we were building a house, this [proposal] can and will be an important cornerstone," Song told MBC radio.
South Korean security officials met yesterday to discuss the coming disarmament negotiations, and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun is set to chair a National Security Council meeting on the issue today.
The North's return to the nuclear talks has renewed optimism that the crisis can be resolved, but officials are urging Pyongyang to engage in substantive discussions about giving up its atomic weapons.
South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper wrote in an editorial yesterday that the next round of the arms talks would be "the last chance to solve the nuclear dispute through dialogue" before possible sanctions at the UN Security Council.
"If the talks resume, their prospects are by no means bright. Nothing has changed in the basic positions of the US and North Korea," it wrote.
"Unless [the talks] achieve substantial progress, they will merely fuel the suspicion that they are a waste of time," it added.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
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