By Reuben Staines
Staff Reporter


North Korea should be allowed to maintain a peaceful nuclear energy program as long as it verifiably scraps its weapons development, a top South Korean official said Thursday, signaling a major split in opinion between Seoul and Washington in the nuclear negotiations.

In an interview with local Internet portal Daum Media, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young argued that electricity-starved Pyongyang has the right to generate nuclear energy.

``Even before the recent six-party talks, we have said that if North Korea returns to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and allows inspections, it should have the right to pursue peaceful nuclear energy as a member of the treaty,’’ said Chung, who also serves as chairman of the National Security Council.

The United States has demanded North Korea give up all nuclear programs, including those for energy generation, and the issue was one of the biggest stumbling blocks at the recent six-nation negotiations aimed at ending the nuclear standoff.

Chung was unusually frank about the difference in opinion between South Korea and the U.S., its long-standing military ally. ``We think differently from the U.S. on this,’’ he was quoted as saying.

Earlier, Song Min-soon, South Korea’s top negotiator at the nuclear talks, hinted that he will try to convince the U.S. to accept North Korea’s running of a peaceful nuclear program.

``Our position is that North Korea should abandon its nuclear program and then we will adjust differences (with other countries) to pave the way for them to pursue a peaceful nuclear program as a sovereign state,’’ he told SBS television network.

But Christopher Hill, Washington’s chief delegate, appeared to brush off the remarks, reiterating his country’s opposition to Pyongyang operating nuclear programs of any kind.

Hill said North Korea broke its promise to refrain from developing nuclear weapons and should be barred from using nuclear energy as a precaution.

``This is a country, I think, that had trouble keeping peaceful energy peaceful,’’ he said. ``There’s a track record there that needs to be dealt with.’’

The U.S. diplomat also said South Korea’s proposal to provide 2 million kilowatts of electricity to the communist North makes it unnecessary for Pyongyang to run nuclear power plants.

``To be talking about retaining the right of peaceful use at this point seems like the wrong subject,’’ Hill told a news conference. ``They should be focusing on what they need to do to get out of this weapons business and get into the business of providing electricity for their citizens.’’

North Korea, for its part, has indicated that it views the issue as the ``crux’’ of resolving the nuclear standoff. ``The U.S. has refused to accept our peaceful nuclear program,’’ Kim Kye-gwan, North Korea’s vice foreign minister, was quoted as saying at a briefing following the conclusion of the third round of multilateral talks in Beijing.

Experts said this tug-of-war between Seoul and Washington is likely to dominate nuclear consultations scheduled over the next two weeks. The six-party negotiations, which dragged on for 13 days with few signs of progress, are set to resume late this month after a three-week recess.

It is unclear how North Korea’s desire to keep its nuclear energy programs is viewed by the other three participants at the talks, namely Japan, China and Russia. Most politics observers, though, predict that Japan would likely back the U.S. in opposing such a concession.

Meanwhile, an article contributed to the Christian Science Monitor argues that South Korea’s nonchalant attitude toward the North’s nuclear programs stems from its belief that it will inherit Pyongyang’s nuclear capacity when the Korean Peninsula is reunified.

``In Seoul’s long-term calculus, the North Korean bomb is the `Korean bomb,’ which will benefit Seoul after eventual reunification,’’ said the article, written by commentator Choe Won-joon and Jack Kim.

``Not only does South Korea not fear the North Korean nukes; it seemingly welcomes them with open arms.’’

rjs@koreatimes.co.kr