North Korea may get no-attack guarantee
| • | U.S. deployment in South Korea discussed here |
By Glenn Kessler
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Bush administration officials are considering granting North Korea formal guarantees that it will not come under U.S. attack in what would be part of a diplomatic gambit by the White House aimed at resolving a standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.
In extensive talks last week with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo, administration officials asked him to inform the North Koreans that the United States would agree to meet again with Chinese and North Korean officials in Beijing, provided the session was followed almost immediately by multilateral talks that include South Korea, Japan and possibly Russia, U.S. officials said yesterday.
Administration officials said that at this broader multilateral meeting, they would formally unveil a U.S. plan for ending the crisis, which has prompted intense discussion within senior levels of the administration about the form of the proposal and how it would be presented.
U.S. officials have indicated to Asian allies that they would open with discussion of how the administration could reassure North Korea that it does not face a U.S. invasion and then move toward what one official called a "whole gamut" of issues between North Korea and United States, such as providing energy and food aid — if the North Korean government meets a series of tough conditions, including progress on human rights.
The diplomatic activity — including a willingness to bend on the administration's previous insistence that its next meeting with North Korea must include South Korea and Japan — suggests that the administration is actively looking for ways to defuse the crisis.
A White House official, however, disputed any notion that the administration had shifted in its public refusal to negotiate with North Korea.
"As we have said many times, we will not submit to blackmail or grant inducements for the North to live up to its obligations," the official said.
President Bush discussed the issue from his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
"We must continue to work with the neighborhood to convince (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Il that his decision (to develop nuclear weapons) is an unwise decision, and we will do just that," Bush said yesterday.
