Seoul steps back on apology from N. Korea

South Korea has said this week it will not link an apology from North Korea for last year’s attacks with resuming multinational disarmament talks, taking a step toward making peace with its nuclear-armed rival.

The change of attitude could lead to early resumption of the six-nation talks aimed at North Korea’s denuclearization, an issue that has sparked a months-long tug of war among regional powers.

Seoul unveiled its softened stance on Wednesday, shortly after proposing a date to North Korea for the first inter-Korean dialogue since the two sides exchanged fire near their tense sea border late last year.

North Korea was first to propose the high-level defense talks to Seoul, saying it was ready to “address all pending military issues” in the dialogue, including its two deadly attacks last year.

Pyongyang apparently torpedoed a South Korean warship last March, killing dozens of sailors and bombed a border island in November, killing two soldeers and two civilians. The communist state, which is technically still at war with the South, has denied responsibility for the first attack and blamed the second on Seoul.

Pyongyang’s apology for the two attacks is “not a direct precondition” for the resumption of the six-nation talks, multiple officials here said Wednesday.

“North Korea’s attitude toward disarmament is more of an important condition for the six-party talks,” a senior official at the presidential office said.

An official at the Foreign Ministry here echoed the view, admitting Pyongyang was unlikely to immediately apologize for the attacks it has denied so far.

“We have to consider other dialogue partners when it comes to the six-party talks,” the official said. “The issue (of North Korea’s attacks) is something to be addressed and sought within the inter-Korean dialogue framework.”

Seoul, with support from its allies Washington and Tokyo, has been reluctant to do any favors for North Korea by agreeing to restart the talks that will secure the impoverished Pyongyang with outside aid of food and fuel.

The six-party negotiations involving the two Koreas, the U.S., Japan, China and Russia have been suspended since the end of 2008, when Pyongyang left the negotiating table and conducted a second atomic test.

Talks between the rivals, expected to take place sometime next month, are viewed as a positive step toward a new round of the international negotiations if North Korea proves willing to give up its nuclear ambitions.

A visiting U.S. envoy said the international community has to send North Korea a strong message against its new uranium enrichment activity, reiterating the remaining condition Pyongyang must fulfill to rejoin the multinational talks.

It is “very important that the international community sends a strong message” that any uranium enrichment activities by North Korea “would be inconsistent with its international obligations, U.N. Security Council resolutions and with its own commitments under the joint declaration of 2005,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said.

North Korea unveiled a new uranium enrichment facility to a U.S. expert in November last year, indicating its ongoing nuclear ambitions. Uranium, if highly enriched, can be used to make nuclear weapons, giving Pyongyang an alternative to plutonium.

Seoul and Washington have called for a tougher international response to the uranium program, saying it violates U.N. Security Council resolutions banning Pyongyang from nuclear activity and the North’s own pledge made during the 2005 six-nation talks.

“Even if North Korea does apologize to Seoul, the six-party talks will not resume unless it provides partners with some kind of faith that it will disarm under the previous agreement,” a Seoul official said.

Through an official statement, North Korea this week reiterated its commitment to the denuclearization of the “entire Korean Peninsula,” saying the nuclear issue was first sparked by the threat of nuclear war by Washington.

The foreign ministry spokesman’s statement, released through the official Korean Central News Agency, also warned against setting “unilateral pre-conditions” or trying to manipulate the order of talks, calling on foes to focus on common interests first.

By Shin Hae-in (hayney@heraldcorp.com)