The international community should seek an "interim freeze" on North Korea's nuclear and missile programs as a denuclearization deal with Pyongyang will not be possible for the foreseeable future, a former senior U.S. official said Friday.
During a forum on the communist regime in Seoul, Robert Einhorn, former special adviser for nonproliferation and arms control at the U.S. State Department, also said that should Pyongyang accept the freeze, the world should be prepared for "parallel talks" on forging a permanent peace regime and denuclearizing the North.
"For the foreseeable future, negotiation of an agreement completely eliminating North Korea's nuclear program will not be possible. But we should seek an interim agreement that freezes North Korea's nuclear and missile programs," said Einhorn, who currently serves as senior fellow at the U.S.-based Brookings Institution's Arms Control and Nonproliferation initiative.
"And once North Korea has accepted an interim freeze, we should be prepared to enter into parallel talks on replacing the armistice with a permanent peace regime and on denuclearization."
His remarks came as Beijing has been pushing for the "dual-track" approach under which negotiations on a peace treaty with the North and on the North's denuclearization would proceed simultaneously -- a proposal that Seoul has rejected, arguing that the focus should remain on pressuring Pyongyang to renounce its nuclear ambitions.
In the wake of its provocations including the fourth nuclear test in January, Pyongyang ramped up its calls for talks over a peace treaty with the U.S. But Washington and Seoul dismissed the calls, reiterating their top priority on Pyongyang's denuclearization.
Observers said the North's "peace offensive" was part of the isolated regime's efforts to escape international isolation and sanctions. In early March, the U.N. Security Council slapped the North with the toughest-ever sanctions as punishment for its latest provocations.
Touching on China's argument that pressure on the North alone would not work to have the North change tack, Einhorn said that "engagement and negotiations" will eventually be necessary should its nuclear and missile programs be limited and rolled back.
But he stressed the importance of pressure on the North, underscoring that only if pressure is sharply increased will there be any prospect of diplomacy making any headway.
"Just like in the case of Iran, if negotiations are to have any chance of succeeding, diplomacy must be backed by pressure -- what we call by a dual-track approach that was successful in the case of Iran," he said.
In an apparent allusion to the public criticism over the Obama administration's policy toward the North, which many called "strategic patience -- or deridingly "strategic coma," Einhorn defended the policy, noting that Washington has made its own share of efforts to "reach out" to the reclusive state.
"I recognized that there is an impression, including here in South Korea and with the South Korean public that the United States has been unwilling to engage diplomatically with North Korea," he said.
"I don't believe that this is an accurate impression. I believe the Obama administration, coordinating closely with the ROK (Republic of Korea) and with China, has reached out to North Korea and has even relaxed its preconditions for negotiations on the nuclear issue." (Yonhap)
