SOUTH / NORTH KOREA: U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell meets with South Korean officials for talks over North Korean food aid and other regional issues as war protesters stage anti-US demo

Record ID: 186881

  • Title: SOUTH / NORTH KOREA: U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell meets with South Korean officials for talks over North Korean food aid and other regional issues as war protesters stage anti-US demo
  • Date: 13th March 2011
  • Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (MARCH 12, 2011) (REUTERS) ***CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** KURT CAMPBELL AND SOUTH KOREAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER KIM JAE-SHIN WALKING OUT OF MEETING ROOM JOURNALISTS CAMPBELL, KIM AND JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC AFFAIRS, KURT CAMPBELL, SAYING: "We're prepared for dialogue with North Korea, but we want it to be different than the kind of dialogue that we've seen in the past. We want a sincere effort on the part of North Korean interlocutors to engage responsibly across the full range of issues - nuclear issues, other... missile and North-South developments." VARIOUS OF JOURNALISTS CAMPBELL LEAVING VARIOUS OF CAMPBELL SHAKING HANDS WITH SOUTH KOREA'S NUCLEAR ENVOY WI SUNG-LAK MEETING CAMPBELL SPEAKING WI SPEAKING CAMPBELL AND WI SUNG-LAK SOUTH KOREAN DELEGATES U.S. DELEGATES CAMPBELL AND WI SUNG-LAK MEETING IN PROGRESS SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (MARCH 12, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ANTI-U.S. PROTESTERS CHANTING SLOGANS (3 SHOTS) PROTEST LEADER YOU YOUNG-JAE SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) PROTEST LEADER, YOU YOUNG-JAE, SAYING: "I heard the U.S. and South Korean foreign ministry officials would discuss North Korea's nuclear issues and possible food aid to the North. We are here to be against the two countries' plan to take the North's uranium-enrichment programme issue to the U.N. and urge them to reopen the food aid to the North actively." PROTESTERS HOLDING BANNERS BANNER READING "UEP TO UN SECURITY COUNCIL? NO" AND SHOWING PHOTO OF KURT CAMPBELL PROTESTERS CHANTING VARIOUS OF CAMPBELL SHAKING HANDS WITH SOUTH KOREA'S DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER KIM JAE-SHIN MEETING IN PROGRESS KIM SPEAKING CAMPBELL SPEAKING U.S. DELEGATES SOUTH KOREAN OFFICIALS CAMPBELL AND KIM MEETING
  • Embargoed: 28th March 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Korea, Republic of
  • Country: South Korea
  • Reuters ID: LVA2KNQVDGLT64XYOY0AXUGEO63
  • Story Text: The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell met with South Korean officials on Saturday (March 12) in talks over North Korean food aid and other regional issues.
    Seoul's Yonhap News agency expected Campbell to focus on the North's uranium-enrichment programme and food aid to the reclusive country at the meetings with South Korea's chief nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lak and Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Jae-shin.
    Campbell's visit came as Seoul and Washington seek to encourage the U.N. Security Council to adopt a presidential statement denouncing the North's uranium programme, saying it constitutes a violation of U.N. resolutions and Pyongyang's own commitment to abandon nuclear programmes, the agency added.
    Campbell said on Saturday that the North must make a sincere effort towards dialogue.
    "We're prepared for dialogue with North Korea, but we want it to be different than the kind of dialogue that we've seen in the past. We want a sincere effort on the part of North Korean interlocutors to engage responsibly across the full range of issues - nuclear issues, other... missile and North-South developments," he said during a new conference in Seoul.
    Outside Seoul's foreign ministry a group of anti-war activists staged an anti-U.S. rally. The demonstrators called upon the American administration to provide food to the North.
    "I heard the U.S. and South Korean foreign ministry officials would discuss North Korea's nuclear issues and possible food aid to the North. We are here to be against the two countries' plan to take the North's uranium-enrichment programme issue to the U.N. and urge them to reopen the food aid to the North actively," said protest leader You Young-jae.
    North Korea has said it wants to return to the six-party negotiations, where the North's nuclear disarmament would be discussed among North and South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States.
    But Seoul and Washington have questioned the extent of the North's commitment to denuclearising - focusing on a November revelation on uranium-enrichment programmes.
    North Korea's state-run television KRT released video, on Saturday, of senior Russian diplomats visiting Pyongyang.
    Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin and his delegates placed flowers at the base of a statue of North Korean founder Kim Il-sung and the Liberation Tower on Friday (March 11).
    Pyongyang says the programme is for peaceful energy-producing purposes, but regional powers, including sole major ally China, have expressed concerns about the facility which opens a second route to make a nuclear bomb after its plutonium programme.
    The North was likely to conduct a plutonium-fuelled test, mindful of opposition from China to the uranium enrichment, the source told Yonhap.
    In December, an institute of South Korea's foreign ministry said the North might attempt a third nuclear test in 2011 to strengthen the credentials of young leader-in-waiting Kim Jong-un.
    The commander of U.S. military forces in the Pacific, Admiral Robert Willard, said last month that succession politics in Pyongyang point to new provocative acts "in months and not years."
    Experts last month reported that satellite images also show North Korea have likely completed a second long-range missile launchpad.
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