SEOUL, 2 October 2003 — President Roh Moo-Hyun said yesterday that progress on the North Korean nuclear crisis must come before any decision to commit thousands of South Korean troops to Iraq at the request of the United States.
Ending the nuclear crisis and setting the stage for peace and stability on the Korean peninsula was the top goal of his administration, Roh said.
“Prior to making any decision on the troop dispatch it is extremely important to arrive at a positive outlook for, and conviction in, peace and stability on the Korean peninsula,” Roh said in a speech to mark armed forces day here.
“More than anything, a stable atmosphere of dialogue should be promoted so that it will lead to a conviction that the North’s nuclear issue can, indeed, be resolved peacefully.” South Korean media reports have said Washington has asked for 5,000 combat troops but the figure has not been confirmed here.
The request has triggered protests from South Koreans opposed to the US invasion of Iraq who fault the US hard line on North Korea over the nuclear crisis.
South Korea has been urging the US to be more flexible toward North Korea and analysts suggest Roh is using the troop request as leverage to encourage Washington to soften its stance.
His speech came a day after North Korea said it had no further interest in talks and was beefing up its nuclear weapons arsenal because of Washington’s failure to offer concessions at a first round of six-way talks in Beijing last month that also included China, Japan and Russia.
North Korea insists on a non-aggression pact and aid from the United States before it will respond to US demands that its first scrap its nuclear weapons program.
“Asking the other party to put down the guns first does not make any sense,” North Korea’s Deputy Foreign Minister Choe Su-Hon told the UN General Assembly’s annual gathering of world leaders in New York on Tuesday.
Roh, however, expressed optimism that a second round of talks would take place and anticipated a positive result.
Meanwhile, North Korea yesterday accused the US of forcing South Korea to dispatch troops to Iraq despite protests from the South Korean people. “This is another brigandish and arbitrary action taken by the real ruler over South Korea on the strength of the unequal US-South Korea relationship stipulated in the South Korea-US mutual defense treaty,” said the official daily of the North’s ruling Korean Workers Party, Rodong Sinmun.
South Korea’s armed forces marched later yesterday in the first military parade seen in Seoul in five years, displaying new missiles and military hardware.
Despite the show, Roh said South Korea needed to develop a fully independent defensive capability over the next 10 years that matched the country’s status as the world’s 12th biggest economy. The US, under a 50-year-old mutual defense treaty, has stationed 37,000 troops in South Korea to carry out key military functions.
