In Asia, Powell Swims Against Current on Issues

Flying against a diplomatic headwind on the issues of North Korea and Iraq, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell arrived here to attend today’s inauguration of a South Korean president whose independence is likely to pose fresh challenges to American policy in Asia.

Seoul is the last stop on Powell’s three-nation Asia tour. In Japan and China, America’s chief diplomat was told that relations with the U.S. were improving, and he found common ground on many issues. But so far, Powell has not secured any public promises of support either for the Bush administration’s second United Nations resolution on Iraq or for its insistence on multilateral talks with North Korea.

Powell told reporters in Beijing on Sunday that he had had “excellent meetings” with Communist Party General Secretary Hu Jintao and President Jiang Zemin. On North Korea, he said, “I think they are anxious to play as helpful a role as they can.... They prefer to play their role quietly, but they have a clear understanding of our desires and our interests.”

But statements in the Chinese media indicated that Powell had made no headway in changing Chinese minds on either Iraq or North Korea. Before the American diplomat’s plane had even left the ground in Beijing, Hu had told the official New China News Agency that China hoped Washington would hold direct talks with Pyongyang as soon as possible. Powell has rejected such talks.

The secretary of State argued Monday that North Korea’s nuclear ambitions threaten not just America but the entire world, and its neighbors must take part in crafting a solution that persuades Pyongyang to abandon attempts to develop nuclear weapons and quit spreading weapons of mass destruction.

“Merely because North Korea says this [direct talks] is the only way they will deal does not necessarily mean that it is the right way with which to deal with this issue,” Powell said Monday.

Powell’s remarks highlight an important ideological divide between the U.S. and its allies. They agree on keeping North Korea from becoming a nuclear weapons state but disagree on how to achieve that. The Bush administration warns of “appeasement” and “giving in to blackmail.”

However, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan was quoted on state-run television as saying the U.S. and North Korea should hold early talks “on an equal basis,” language that is likely to rile an American president who has labeled North Korea part of “an axis of evil.” Other nations argue that however distasteful the regime in Pyongyang, the U.S. should start talking without fighting over the forum.

“Whether one likes it or not -- and I don’t particularly like it -- this will have to be resolved bilaterally,” Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told reporters in Canberra, Reuters news agency reported. Downer was among a host of dignitaries in Seoul for the inauguration of Roh Moo Hyun as South Korea’s president. Roh opposes any direct pressure on North Korea.

“It isn’t a matter of whether President Bush is right or wrong, but a question of solving the problem,” Roh said in an interview with The Times in December. “One can use both the carrot or the stick with North Korea. But if you use the stick and it fails, the result will be devastating. The carrot, I know, will definitely work in the end. There is no other way.”

In his meeting with Powell later today, Roh is expected to make a case for direct negotiations and a patient approach.

Powell has said that both Japan and China have their own ideas for bringing North Korea to the negotiating table, but declined to make them public. Administration officials refuse to call the North Korean problem a “crisis” and are trying not to give Pyongyang ultimatums that might goad it into testing U.S. resolve.

But Powell on Monday came closer to signaling the limits of U.S. tolerance.

“I cannot emphasize enough how seriously all of us would view any move by North Korea toward reprocessing of the spent fuel rods and production of nuclear weapons,” he said.

On Iraq policy, Powell said that he felt it was “inappropriate to press” Tang for a decision on voting for the U.S.-sponsored Security Council resolution before it had been presented, and that China had not indicated what it would do.

Hu told the New China News Agency that China wanted “a political solution to the Iraq issue within the framework of the United Nations.” A Chinese reporter asked Powell bluntly what benefits China could expect if it backs the U.S. on Iraq, suggesting, for example, some concessions on Taiwan.

“That’s not the right question,” Powell shot back. “The right question is ... what the whole world stands to gain” by stopping Iraq’s program for weapons of mass destruction.

Powell reassured Jiang that Washington would stick to its “one China” policy, according to Chinese media reports. Powell praised China’s cooperation in the war on terrorism, lauded the country for promising $150 million to rebuild Afghanistan, and praised China for instituting export controls on missiles, chemical and biological materials.

At a news conference, Powell also raised a number of human rights concerns, including the execution last month of Tibetan Lobsang Dhondup and the suspended death sentence given to prominent Tibetan Buddhist cleric Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche in the western province of Sichuan.

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Times staff writer Barbara Demick in Seoul and special correspondent Anthony Kuhn in Beijing contributed to this report.