U.S. envoy sees no quick fix for Koreas

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

Thomas Hubbard, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, said yesterday that he doesn't expect quick results from next week's six-way talks dealing with North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

"I think we've hit upon a good formula for talks. Obviously, we don't enter into talks without some degree of hope or optimism that they will succeed," Hubbard said in Honolulu.

"But I don't think we can expect early, quick results."

Hubbard's comments came after an East-West Center "Senior Policy Seminar" that included discussion of the Aug. 27-29 talks in Beijing involving North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

Choi Young-jin, chancellor of the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in South Korea, said the public should not be surprised if it takes years, rather than months, "to deal with the whole spectrum of questions."

During the talks in China, the United States will demand that North Korea shut down its nuclear weapons program permanently. North Korea, for its part, is expected to call for security guarantees and economic benefits.

Hubbard downplayed the nonaggression treaty that North Korea is seeking in exchange for nuclear concessions. He suggested that nonaggression treaties are an anachronism akin to the short-lived pact between Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin "that was only made to be broken."

Hubbard, who took part in bilateral talks between the United States and North Korea in the early 1990s but is not participating in next week's meetings, said the one-on-one negotiation was a flawed approach.

But "now we have an opportunity to get all of these countries who have the deepest interest in the resolution of the North Korean problem all in the same room at the same time and talking together," he said.

Hubbard said the Beijing talks have taken on "some urgency," given North Korea's claims to be reprocessing spent fuel rods, which could lead to the production of more fissile material and more nuclear weapons.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.