South Korea urges end to row

South Korea told its communist neighbour yesterday that it must do more than say it has no plans to develop atomic arms if it was to end the crisis on the peninsula.

Isolated North Korea was in belligerent mood, hurling abuse at the United States, which it blames for the crisis, as the standoff overshadowed cabinet-level meetings with counterparts in Seoul that had been supposed to focus on economic co-ordination.

South Korean newspapers saw the statement by chief North Korean delegate Kim Ryong-song that Pyongyang had no plans to build nuclear arms as little more than a ploy to sidestep the issue.

Delegates from South Korea, in the line of fire of more than 10,000 North Korean artillery pieces, adopted a similar tough tone in the talks, calling on Pyongyang to do more to break the impasse.

“We must completely remove the security concerns that have recently formed on the Korean peninsula,” South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun said at a dinner with the North Korean delegation.

The North refuses to discuss the nuclear issue with the South and in an apparent attempt to drive a wedge between the South and its old ally the US, the North’s Kim Ryong-song called for unity between all Koreans.

“The North and South must unite, joining hands to help each other and protect the sovereignty of our people,” he said.

The top US arms control diplomat said North Korea’s decision this month to quit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) could be taken to the UN Security Council as early as this week.

Such a move could further infuriate the North, diplomatic sources close to Pyongyang said in Tokyo, and actual discussion of the issue in the Security Council could prompt North Korea to resume tests of ballistic missiles.

China hinted strongly it was not prepared to use its influence over its fellow communist state, saying the issue could only be only solved by talks between the US and North Korea.

The crisis was sparked in October when the US said the North had admitted to developing nuclear arms. Pyongyang ejected UN nuclear inspectors last month, and later removed the seals from a mothballed reactor and pulled out of the NPT.

North Korea has said any move by the UN to impose sanctions would escalate the crisis and could even trigger war.

“The DPRK (North Korea) is ready both for dialogue and war,” Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency said. “Anyone who attempts to make a pre-emptive strike at the DPRK can never go safe.”

US Undersecretary of State John Bolton, the top US arms control diplomat, said in Seoul that Washington would not give in to nuclear blackmail.

“We are not in the marketplace for buying off North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction,” he said on Wednesday.

Bolton dismissed as a “red herring” the North’s demand that the US sign a non-aggression pact but said Washington could consider putting in writing US President George W Bush’s statement that America had no plan to invade the North.