By Reuben Staines
Staff Reporter


Condoleezza Rice


Chung Dong-young

Washington’s top negotiator in the nuclear standoff with North Korea signaled on Thursday that the United States will support South Korea’s much-vaunted but as yet undisclosed proposal aimed at ending the crisis.

Christopher Hill, U.S. assistant secretary of state, said the U.S. has no problems with the proposal, talking with reporters after a meeting with South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young in Washington.

``We don’t have any problems there,’’ Hill said, adding that Seoul and Washington are ``very much in sync’’ and have a ``common analysis of issues.’’

South Korea first alluded to its ``important proposal’’ to resolve the nuclear stalemate during talks with the communist North in May, saying the deal will satisfy both Pyongyang and Washington.

It has yet to make the proposal public but experts believe it calls for simultaneous concessions by the U.S. and North Korea, as well as large amounts of South Korean aid to the impoverished North.

News media in Seoul have speculated that the proposal could include a kind of North Korean ``Marshall Plan,’’ referring to the U.S. program to rebuild Europe following World War II.

Hill’s comments, the first time a Washington official has voiced an opinion on Seoul’s proposal, came amid a flurry of diplomatic contacts aimed at restarting the stalled multilateral talks over the North’s nuclear weapons programs.

Chung, on a five-day visit to Washington, met Hill along with U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley to brief them about recent inter-Korean discussions on the nuclear issue, notably his talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on June 17.

In the rare face-to-face meeting, Kim told the South’s unification chief the six-party nuclear talks could resume this month if the U.S. treated his country with respect.

Hadley said Washington is also willing to regard Pyongyang as a ``serious negotiating partner’’ but doubted if Kim is truly prepared to give up his nuclear ambitions, according to South Korean official accompanying Chung to the U.S.

Chung is expected to meet U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney before returning to Seoul tomorrow.

Meanwhile, political observers were looking hopefully to New York where U.S. and North Korean nuclear negotiators gathered for an academic conference.

Ri Gun, Pyongyang’s deputy delegate to the six-party talks, and U.S. counterpart Joseph DeTrani were expected to use the closed-door seminar as an opportunity to exchange opinions on the nuclear issue.

Few details were available but DeTrani described the meeting as ``very good.’’

``If it’s useful, you’ll soon hear of a date’’ for resuming the six-party talks, another U.S. official present was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Hong Seok-hyun, South Korean ambassador to the U.S., also flew up to New York on Thursday to meet with Park Gil-yon, the North’s top diplomat to the United Nations.

It is the first time South and North Korean ambassadors stationed in the U.S. have met.

``I told Ambassador Park that I hope North Korea will return to the six-party talks as soon as possible,’’ Hong said, adding that they agreed to get together again from time to time.

Hopes have brightened for a resumption of the six-party talks in the wake of the North Korean leader’s meeting with the South’s unification minister in June.

News reports from Beijing said China is getting ready to host another round of talks this month, over a year after the third meeting closed without significant progress.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will also visit South Korea in mid-July as part of a tour of Northeast Asian nations involved in the nuclear negotiations, officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Seoul confirmed.

Officials said Rice’s schedule has not been fixed but she will likely arrive sometime between July 11 and 13. Rice last visited Seoul in March.

rjs@koreatimes.co.kr