South Korea Says North Must OK Inspections

South Korean President Roh Tae Woo on Friday said North Korea has no choice but to accept nuclear inspections by the South if it wants to improve relations with the rest of the world.

Seoul and its western allies fear North Korea is close to building a nuclear bomb, a charge it denies.

“The North must be aware that without solving the nuclear question, it cannot improve relations with South Korea and other countries,” Roh said in an interview published in Saturday’s edition of the English-language Korea Herald.

The nuclear impasse has dashed the high hopes that greeted a North-South nonaggression and reconciliation treaty last December. The two Koreas remain technically at war almost four decades after the 1950-53 Korean War ended.