- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
U.S. and South Korean presidents vowed on Wednesday to work with allies
to halt North Korea's nuclear ambitions, papering over differences on how
to disarm the communist state.
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- President Bush and his South Korea's Roh Moo-hyun emerged
from a get-acquainted summit touting a personal chemistry they said would
help them cope with both North Korea and the task of modernizing a 50-year-old
alliance.
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- "There's no question in my mind we'll have the kind
of personal relationship where we will consult freely to solve major problems,"
Bush told reporters in the White House Rose Garden.
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- The liberal Roh spoke of "personal friendship"
with the conservative Bush -- a sharp contrast to Bush's frosty 2001 meeting
with Roh's predecessor, Kim Dae-jung, which soured ties for two years.
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- "It was not even necessary to tell President Bush
all the logic that I had in mind to convince him before I came here. President
Bush had an accurate idea of what concerned me and what were my hopes,"
Roh said.
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- A joint statement said the two allies would "not
tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea" and were confident they could
achieve a peaceful resolution of that crisis.
-
- They skirted the problem of how to persuade North Korea
to scrap its nuclear weapons. Washington has insisted on retaining a military
option and has plans to squeeze North Korea economically -- policies Roh
has resisted as dangerous.
-
- "We're not saying the military option is off the
table and President Roh didn't ask for that," said one U.S. official.
"But there are a lot of other things in the tool box, a lot of diplomatic
and other steps."
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- ROLE FOR OTHERS
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- The statement said Japan and Russia should have a diplomatic
role with China, which hosted talks last month at which North Korea told
Washington it had nuclear arms.
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- "The first step to a peaceful resolution is making
sure that everywhere North Korea turns they're going to hear the same message:
Give up the nukes or you're going to face greater isolation," the
U.S. official said.
-
- The statement said "increased threats to peace and
stability on the peninsula would require consideration of further steps."
It did not elaborate.
-
- Marcus Noland of the Institute for International Economics
in Washington said there was growing consensus in the United States that
"regime change" in Pyongyang was the solution.
-
- "It is only by establishing that you in good faith
went the extra mile with the negotiated process, will you be able to convince
South Korea, China and Japan to go along with something other than negotiations,"
he said.
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- Roh began his first foreign tour since taking power in
February on Sunday and has worked hard to dispel perceptions he is anti-American.
When he was younger, Roh advocated a withdrawal of U.S. troops from South
Korea.
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- Bush and Roh pledged to consult on plans to relocate
or cut some of the 37,000 U.S. troops in the South.
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- Any relocation of U.S. troops bordering North Korea from
the front "should be pursued taking careful account of the political,
economic and security situation on the peninsula and in Northeast Asia,"
the statement said.
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- The crisis erupted in October 2002 when Washington said
North Korea had admitted to a covert program to enrich uranium for nuclear
arms in addition to a plutonium program frozen under a 1994 U.S.-North
Korean pact.
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