|
Home>News Center>World | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
US not to topple N.Korean government - report
The United States has decided to aim for a gradual transformation in North Korea rather than seek to topple North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's government, a Japanese newspaper said Saturday. The report comes after North Korea said Monday it was seriously reconsidering its role in stalled six-way nuclear talks because of what it sees as a concerted campaign to topple its ruling system. "Assistant Secretary of State (James) Kelly clearly denied ... that the Bush administration was seeking to topple Kim Jong-il's regime, and revealed that their stance was to appeal for regime transformation and urge it to gradually open up to the outside," the Asahi Shimbun newspaper said. The U.S. stance had been conveyed to countries such as North Korea and South Korea, the newspaper said. Kelly, who heads the U.S. delegation to the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program, added that self-help efforts by North Korea were desirable, Asahi said. While the United States has said that it has no intent to attack North Korea, the new stance goes a step further and shows a readiness to co-exist with Kim's government, the newspaper said, adding that the stance was likely aimed at urging North Korea to return to the multilateral talks. Other U.S. government officials said that the Bush administration has decided to view the idea of "regime transformation" as the basis for North Korean policy in Bush's second term, the newspaper said. Senior U.S. envoy Joseph DeTrani outlined the position to an official at North Korea's mission to the United Nations in New York in late November, Asahi said. South Korean media had reported last week that Stephen Hadley, who has been named to replace Condoleezza Rice as President Bush's national security adviser, told South Korean lawmakers that the United States was seeking a "regime transformation" in North Korea and not its collapse. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, in a summit in southern Japan on Friday, jointly urged North Korea to return to talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons programs. Separately, a senior U.S. official told Reuters Friday that the United States might consider holding multilateral talks without North Korea if North Korea continues to resist another round of negotiations on the nuclear issue. In the talks, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Russia and China are seeking to persuade North Korea to ditch its nuclear arms ambitions in return for aid and security guarantees. A fourth round planned before the end of September never materialized after three inconclusive rounds in Beijing. |
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
