N. Korea's Activities at "Center" of U.S.-China Relationship

North Korea's Activities at "Center" of U.S.-China Relationship

By Stephen Kaufman
Staff Writer

Washington - Senior State Department officials say China and the United States share the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula and that both countries will need to work together and with partners in East Asia to resolve North Korea's status as a nuclear weapons state.

Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee March 1 that nuclear activity by North Korea "is an issue which is at the very center of the U.S.-China relationship."

He acknowledged that China's concern over stability in North Korea sometimes creates "understandable tensions" with its desire to eliminate nuclear weapons on the peninsula.

But neither country wants "to see North Korea as a nuclear weapon state on an ongoing basis," Bosworth said, and each has "a major stake in demonstrating that, working together with our other partners in the region, we can solve this problem or at least manage this problem over the longer term because ... in some sense it is a litmus test to the ability of the United States and China to work together on broader issues."

Bosworth described North Korea as "a pole of instability in the heart of what is arguably the most important economic region of the world today," and said its activities pose "an enduring challenge" to the interests of its neighbors, as well as the United States.

"This is a challenge that must be dealt with," he said. "We do not have the option, in my judgment, of simply biding our time and ignoring them."

The Obama administration is pursuing a two-track policy of working with the international community to tighten economic sanctions targeting North Korea's leadership and its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, while also remaining open to "constructive dialogue," he said.

"We view diplomacy ultimately as the best way of solving these difficulties and this challenge," he said, but the United States is looking for evidence that North Korea is prepared to carry out commitments it has already agreed to, such as its September 2005 agreement with South Korea, Japan, Russia, China and the United States to abandon its nuclear programs ( http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2005/September/20050919144504ajesrom0.1789972.html ).

"It's very difficult to go forward with confidence and make new agreements if they are not able to adhere to the ones that we've already put in place," Bosworth said.

He also said the Obama administration has repeatedly told North Korea that while the United States believes that a change in its regime's behavior is "necessary to any fundamental improvement in the overall relationship" between the two countries, "regime change is not the objective" of U.S. policy.

"It may be that they don't believe us or that they don't fully trust us, but I don't think they should be operating under the fear that somehow we are dedicated and determined to undermine the regime," he said.

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell told the Senate panel that the United States is determined to "break the cycle" of North Korea's provocations, which threaten both regional and global security.

In his testimony, Campbell recalled North Korea's March 2010 sinking of the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan ( http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2010/May/20100524104244dmslahrellek6.843203e-02.html ), its November 2010 artillery shelling of Yeonpyeong Island ( http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2010/November/20101123163921nehpets0.2357141.html ), its November 2010 disclosure of a uranium enrichment program ( http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2010/November/20101122163025nehpets0.2618372.html ), as well as its ongoing nuclear and ballistic missile programs and its human rights violations.

"Despite the tremendous opportunities that we see in Asia that have become part of our popular discourse, one country indeed stands out as an outlier and in fact an impediment to the region's promising future: the DPRK, North Korea," he said.

Campbell said the United States is "committed to addressing these issues through an active and determined diplomacy using all elements of our policy at our disposal with all the parties involved."

He said many countries that previously had never been involved with efforts to stop illegal cargo shipments from North Korea to Asian and Middle Eastern countries are now assisting the United States in turning back shipments.

"We've also been able to target some specific entities that are involved in providing hard currency to elite groups around the leadership. And our evidence suggests that, in fact, many of these efforts do indeed bite and have created some difficulties overall for the leadership," he said.

Through United Nations Security Council resolutions 1718 and 1824, as well as unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries, North Korea "is probably the most heavily sanctioned country in the world," Campbell said, and the Obama administration will continue to urge its partners in the region to robustly enforce measures designed to make it more difficult for North Korea to pursue illegal activities.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)

ENDS