[Aju News DB]
The Korean peninsula heads for a turbulent confrontation as South Korea locked the horns with North Korea Friday over its latest nuclear test which has led to a spike in cross-border tensions.
President Park Geun-hye said South Korea should step up a diplomatic push for tough international sanctions against North Korea at the risk of worsening inter-Korean relations.
"Inter-Korean relations will be soured or frozen inevitably for a while but our stance must remain firm," she said, chairing the year's first joint conference with the ministries of defense, foreign affairs and unification.
The meeting coincided with a South Korean military drill carried out by an unspecified number of high-speed boats, army helicopters, armoured vehicles and guns as a show of strength against a simulated North Korean attack on the front-line island of Baengnyeong near the disputed Yellow Sea border.
"The most effective way of handling the unpredictable North Korean regime is to maintain a coherent policy," Park said.
She also called for a new multi-national forum on North Korea's nuclear ambitions that would involve South Korea and four other regional partners but exclude the unpredictable, nuclear-armed North.
"It would not be easy, but we should find various and creative approaches such as five-way talks excluding North Korea," Park said, reflecting growing doubts about the effectiveness of six-national talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.
North Korean quit the six-way forum in April 2009 and conducted a second nuclear test a month later. Pyongyang has expressed its desire to return to the dialogue table, but Seoul and Washington want Pyongyang to show sincerity on denuclearization before such talks can resume.
Cross-border tension has been high since Pyongyang made a surprise announcement on January 6 that it successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, prompting South Korean border troops to switch back on clusters of loudspeakers blaring messages criticizing North Korea's leadership. The North responded with its own giant loudspeakers and leaflet launches along the border.
Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said he would actively push for a five-nation meeting as it could send a "very real and symbolically strong" message to North Korea, citing the case of Iran which abandoned its nuclear program in the face of a consistent and clear message from world powers involved in negotiations with the country.
China, which hosts the six-nation talks, did not welcome Park's proposal saying the relevant parties should resume talks at an early date. Beijing is reluctant to use more leverage over Pyongyang due to concerns about instability at the border.
Charles Lim
아주경제 임장원 기자 = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
