Park says to use China visit to ensure no reward to N. Korea for bad behavior

South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Thursday she plans to use her upcoming visit to China to enlist the help of North Korea's most important ally in making Pyongyang realize that its bad behavior will never be rewarded.

Breaking North Korea's behavioral pattern of seeking economic and other concessions through provocations was one of the major points of agreement that Park reached during her first meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington earlier this month.

Park is expected to visit China in late June for talks with President Xi Jinping.

"Though China says it can't do everything alone, China still is a country that can exercise considerable influence" over North Korea, Park said during a meeting with American security experts.

"I want to talk in such a direction so that (China) can actively exercise positive influence."

Park stressed the cycle of the North wringing concessions through bad behavior must be broken.

"If we are going to do that, the international community, including China, should speak to North Korea with one voice consistently that there cannot be any reward whatsoever for

provocations ... and make North Korea realize the old pattern is not going to work," she said.

Officials in Seoul said they are in talks with China to set up Park's trip for late June for a summit with Xi, where North Korea is expected to be a key topic. Beijing is considered the only country with any meaningful influence over Pyongyang as a key provider of economic assistance and diplomatic support.

China is also South Korea's largest trading partner.

In Thursday's meeting with the American security experts, Park also said that she plans to ask for Chinese support for her.

"Northeast Asia peace and cooperation initiative," a vision aimed at making the region fraught with history and territorial tensions more peaceful.

The idea calls for the United States and other countries in the region to build trust in a step-by-step manner, first through non-political cooperation, such as terrorism prevention and atomic safety, before expanding cooperation to political and security matters.

North Korea is welcome to take part in the process, Park said.

"But even if North Korea does not want to participate, then other countries can keep building trust (among themselves), which I think then can work as considerable pressure on North Korea," she said.

The American security experts were in Seoul for a security forum. They included John Hamre, president and CEO of Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Georgetown University professors Victor Cha and Michael Green.

Park also used the meeting with them to take a swipe at Japan, stressing that Japanese political leaders should act in a more responsible manner without hurting any longer the heart of those who suffered under the country's aggression in the early 20th century.

(Yonhap News)