N. Korea Warned on Nuclear Ambitions

Illustrating the United States’ two-pronged approach toward Communist North Korea, President Clinton sent a stern warning to Pyongyang on Saturday about a suspected nuclear site and also delivered a virtual commercial for new cruise boat tours from South Korea to its isolated neighbor to the north.

Speaking at a news conference during a two-day visit to South Korea, Clinton and his host, President Kim Dae Jung, both sent strong signals to North Korea that they want to help increase its links to the outside world but will not accept efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction.

“We will not tolerate any possible attempt by North Korea to proliferate nuclear weapons, missiles and other weapons of mass destruction,” Kim said.

In particular, the presidents criticized Pyongyang for preventing an inspection of a large cavern in North Korea that U.S. and South Korean officials suspect is a nuclear facility under construction.

As the news conference was drawing to a close, Clinton--who had projected a serious, measured demeanor until then--seemed to receive a burst of energy. Without being asked, he chimed in after Kim answered a question, stressing the benefits to North Korea of reengaging the rest of the world.

Gesturing excitedly, Clinton talked about news footage he had seen after arriving in Seoul the night before that showed the first voyage of South Korean tourists to the North since the peninsula was divided five decades ago.

“The picture was the tourist ship going into the North, right?” an animated Clinton said. “To us, this was amazing, and it was a very beautiful picture.

“I ask the North Koreans to think about this,” Clinton added in a dramatic manner. “Nothing could ever be put in that hole in the ground that would give the North Koreans as much advantage, as much power, as much wealth, as much happiness as more of those ships going up there full of people from here.”

It was Clinton’s enthusiasm for the tourism enterprise that best conveyed his conviction that Kim’s “sunshine policy” of engaging North Korea holds the key to opening that closed society.

Kim, 72, a former dissident who was jailed for his advocacy of democracy and won the presidency a year ago, is committed to increasing connections between the long-estranged neighbors on the Korean Peninsula.

Contacts among private citizens, which were long forbidden, are now encouraged, as well as efforts by South Korean companies to do business in the North.

It was with the blessing of Kim’s policy that Chung Ju Yung, the founder of the Hyundai Group automobile company, held extraordinarily rare consultations with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il last month, launching the tourist cruises.

Chung also agreed to provide North Korea with $900 million over six years for exclusive rights to develop Mt. Kumjang, on the northeast coast, for tourism.

But North Korea has complicated Kim’s sunshine policy with a string of aggressive moves--including its refusal to allow an inspection of the suspected underground nuclear site.

Such a project would violate a 1994 agreement between Washington and Pyongyang. The pact states that the United States will provide North Korea with two nuclear reactors and fuel oil in exchange for Pyongyang’s pledge to abandon its plutonium weapons program. Clinton warned that unless North Korea allows an inspection of the site and proves that it is abiding by its side of the bargain, there will be a “great reluctance” on the part of the U.S. Congress to pay for the fuel that impoverished North Korea desperately needs.

So far, North Korean officials have suggested that they would allow a search for a price of $300 million--payment for the stigma that would accompany such an inspection.

U.S. officials scoff at the notion of paying, but the next negotiation on the topic is scheduled for early next month.

Clinton said the United States does not have conclusive evidence that the hole is in fact a nuclear development project.

While much attention was given to the efforts of the United States and South Korea to prod and poke North Korea into the global community, Clinton also used his visit to heap praise on South Korea’s Kim for making the difficult decisions necessary to stabilize his nation’s economy. After a financial collapse a year ago, Kim launched a reform plan that met the demands of the International Monetary Fund.

While other Asian economies remain in disarray, South Korea’s currency has stabilized, and interest rates have dropped--although unemployment remains high at over 8%, three times what it was a year ago.

The reason South Korea is on the right path “is because a free people have given their leaders a mandate to confront problems with candor and the legitimacy to call for shared sacrifices,” Clinton said in a toast at a state dinner at Blue House, the official residency of the South Korean president.

Clinton plans to spend today with U.S. and South Korean armed forces that work jointly to protect South Korea from incursions from the North. About 37,000 American servicemen and women are based in South Korea to back up a 1954 agreement the United States made to help defend South Korea from outside aggression.

* ISSUES FOLLOW CLINTON: President Clinton faced questions about impeachment hearings as he traveled in Asia. A12