By Reuben Staines
Staff Reporter

As negotiations on the North Korean nuclear crisis enter a crucial stage, U.S. officials are cautiously assessing rumors of a second inter-Korean summit _ a development that some experts say would strengthen Pyongyang’s hand at the bargaining table.

Speculation of a meeting between President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has grown in recent weeks despite repeated denials by Seoul.

With the North showing greater signs of cooperation, Roh may be tempted to meet Kim in the hope of achieving a Korean-led solution to the nuclear standoff.

But U.S. experts warn that Seoul had better be sure of making a substantial breakthrough toward North Korean nuclear dismantlement before extending its hand to Pyongyang.

Derek Mitchell, an Asian security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Washington would find a second inter-Korean summit ``most unhelpful without any North Korean progress on the nuclear question.’’

``The Bush administration will view this as the time for allied solidarity to enforce leverage on the North rather than to provide Kim solace in thinking he can play for time or promote fissures in the U.S.-South Korea alliance,’’ Mitchell told The Korea Times.

Both Pyongyang and Washington put forward detailed compensation-for-dismantlement proposals at last month’s third round of six-party talks in Beijing. Political analysts believe the two sides are beginning to take negotiations seriously but maneuvering to secure more favorable terms for a deal will likely drag on for some time.

Richard Lugar, chairman of the U.S. Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, on Thursday suggested Pyongyang is trying to isolate the U.S. at the Beijing talks. ``In an effort to scuttle the six-party process, North Korea has accelerated bilateral dialogue with its neighbors on a myriad of issues,’’ Lugar told the committee, referring to Pyongyang’s discussions with Tokyo on normalizing bilateral relations and strengthened inter-Korean dialogue.

Mitchell said a follow up to the June 15, 2000 inter-Korean summit would be one way for Pyongyang to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington.

``If it seems to provide aid and rewards without reciprocation on the issues of greatest interest to the United States, a second summit would indeed put further distance between the U.S. and South Korea _ not only over North Korea but in the alliance as a whole,’’ he commented.

However, Stephen Noerper, vice president at Washington-based security analysis firm Intellibridge, said there is nothing to be lost in engaging in dialogue with the North. ``Any Korean-led solution to forward progress on the peninsula is a good thing,’’ he said.

Since taking office early last year, Roh has sought to carry on former President Kim Dae-jung’s ``sunshine’’ policy of engagement with North Korea in spite of continuing nuclear tensions and revelations that Seoul secretly paid Pyongyang for its participation in the first inter-Korean summit.

At times the progressive president’s stance has clashed with that of the Bush administration. Critics accuse Roh of straining the country’s 50-year-old alliance with the U.S. and blame him for Washington’s decision to withdraw a third of its troops from the peninsula.

Noerper said South Korea and the U.S. clearly have different priorities and these differences need to be discussed in a straightforward manner to bolster the alliance. But he believed this should not prevent Seoul from pursuing a North Korea policy independent to that of the U.S. ``If South Korea takes the lead in encouraging North Korean denuclearization, so be it,’’ Noerper said. ``In the end we may be better off, because it is a Korean-dictated solution to a Korean impasse.’’

rjs@koreatimes.co.kr