SOUTH KOREA: US SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL MEETS TOP SOUTH KOREAN OFFICIALS TO DISCUSS NORTH KOREA AND NUCLEAR ISSUE/ ANTI US PROTESTORS

Record ID: 838168

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: US SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL MEETS TOP SOUTH KOREAN OFFICIALS TO DISCUSS NORTH KOREA AND NUCLEAR ISSUE/ ANTI US PROTESTORS
  • Date: 26th October 2004
  • Summary: (W3)SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (OCTOBER 26, 2004) (REUTERS) WIDE OF POWELL AND BAN LEAVING BRIEFING WIDE OF US FLAG FLAYING OUTSIDE US EMBASSY / PULLOUT TO PROTEST RALLY NEAR U.S. EMBASSY VARIOUS OF CHANTING PROTESTORS WITH POSTERS /POSTER WITH COLIN POWELL'S PHOTO WIDE OF RIOT POLICE VEHICLES VARIOUS OF RIOT POLICE SLV PROTESTERS HANDING OVER PROTEST LETTER TO EMBASSY EMPLOYEE WIDE OF ANOTHER PROTEST RALLY NEAR PRESIDENTIAL BLUE HOUSE VARIOUS OF PROTEST RALLY/ POSTTER READING "END THE OCCUPATION" CLOSE OF PROTESTORS WITH POSTERS WITH COLIN POWELL'S PICTURE SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) PROTEST LEADER KIM JONG-IL SAYING: "The United States wants our country to dispatch more troops and extend their stay in Iraq to help Bush to win the presidential election." VARIOUS PROTESTERS CHANTING/ POSTERS READING "POWELL IS A WAR CRIMINAL"
  • Embargoed: 10th November 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
  • City:
  • Country: South Korea
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACVZPM6WNMQEDF7CAZ3TRQJET
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell meets top South Korean officials to discuss North Korea's nuclear weapons programme; small group protests against his visit.
    United States Secretary of State Colin Powell met with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and top South Korean officials on Tuesday (October 26), seeking Seoul's support for a U.S. hard line on North Korea after China said Washington must be more flexible to entice the reclusive state back to nuclear arms talks.
    On the final leg of a trip to revive six-party negotiations on scrapping North Korea's suspected arms programmes, the top U.S. diplomat has won pledges from Japan and China to press North Korea, and is expected to secure South Korea's help too.
    Powell is also under pressure after he rejected North Korea's conditions for returning to the talks and left the two nations dangerously deadlocked.
    South Korea, a military ally that has won U.S.
    gratitude for supplying forces to Iraq, persuaded Washington in June to offer North Korea aid incentives to break the impasse. But the superpower refuses to yield more ground.
    South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Powell was expected to thank President Roh for the dispatch of troops to Iraq and his cooperation on the U.S. troop and base move.
    The United States believes North Korea has a small number of nuclear weapons and Pyongyang warned during Powell's trip it could double its "deterrent".
    The threat is most chilling for South Korea, whose cities are in range of its poor, unpredictable neighbour's missiles. Its border with the North is the most militarised in the world.
    Powell is expected to try to ease South Korea's concern over Pentagon plans to reduce its force on the border as it redeploys troops around the world to better face down militant groups.
    The United States says it will compensate by using more sophisticated weaponry to confront the North Korean threat.
    Powell wants his negotiating partners, particularly China, to exert influence on the communist leadership to hold a fourth round of talks after Pyongyang blocked a September session.
    Senior U.S. officials said China would press North Korea to resume the talks within a few months.
    U.S. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has criticised the lack of progress on North Korea.
    Washington suspects Pyongyang is holding back in the hope Kerry will win the Nov. 2 election and open bilateral talks that might lead to more U.S. concessions.
    A U.S. hard-line official, who would prefer to confront and isolate North Korea, doubted Powell's Asian trip would lead to a new six-party round.
    North Korea will wait for a Kerry victory or stall if Bush retains power to see if Powell, a talks advocate, leaves office, said the official, who asked to remain anonymous.
    Later on Tuesday, Powell met with South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon and Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, who is also the nation's security chief.
    Yonhap news agency said Powell was expected to discuss inter-Korean issues with Chung, including a business park being developed by North and South Korea. Korean officials say the key to success of the industrial park lies in the improvement of relations between Pyongyang and Washington.
    Powell and Foreign Minister Ban met to discuss the six-way talks and the U.S.-South Korea alliance and held a joint news conference after the meeting.

    "So we would like to see the talks get underway again as quickly as possible. And that's the message I am carrying back to President Bush from all of us here in Seoul and Tokyo and in Beijing and I'm sure the Russians have the same view. Let's get going. We were ready in September we were ready in October. The North Koreans elected to hold back and keep putting forward conditions for talks. We hope that in the very near future the North Koreans will see that it is in their interest to have the talks started again," Powell said during a press conference in Seoul.
    Minister Ban said the two countries held discussions to hold the talks after the Nov.2 U.S. election.
    "Although currently the fourth round of six-party talks has not opened yet, the United States and South Korea held close discussions to open the six-way talks as soon as possible right after the U.S. presidential elections," Ban said during the news conference.
    Powell said the United States and others would exert "maximum effort" to achieve a goal of a peaceful and denuclearised Korean peninsula, even though Pyongyang had failed to turn up as promised for a fourth round of six-way talks in September.
    Powell added that the U.S. had no intention of attacking North Korea.
    "We don't attend to attack North Korea, we have no hostile intent notwithstanding their claims, and in fact it is this nuclear issue that is keeping the international community from assisting North Korea," he said.
    In downtown Seoul while Powell held meetings with officials, a small group of South Koreans gathered near the U.S. embassy and the Presidential Blue House to protest his visit.
    Around two dozen protestors shouted slogans blaming the U.S. for leading the war in Iraq. They maintain Powell is in Seoul to ask South Korean government for more troops in Iraq.
    "U.S. wants our country to dispatch more troops and extend their stay in Iraq to help Bush to win the presidential election," said protest leader Kim Jong-il Protest leaders handed over a protest letter to the U.S. embassy.
    Another civic group members held a rally near the Presidential Blue House. They shouted anti-Powell slogans, holding banners, reading, "You are not welcome here."
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