Allies Differ on N. Korea Approach

President Bush, after meeting with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, said today that he would hold fast to the U.S. position that North Korea would not be allowed to have a nuclear reactor before it ends its atomic weapons program.

Nearly two months after North Korea agreed in principle to give up nuclear weapons, the reactor remains an obstacle to final agreement: The Pyongyang government has made it a condition for disarming.

Though Bush and Roh agree that the North must relinquish its weapons, their discussions ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in nearby Pusan reflected differences over how best to approach North Korea in the ongoing six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, which also include China, Russia and Japan.

Experts say that although the U.S. and Japan have maintained a harder line, South Korea has moved closer to China and Russia in advocating a more conciliatory approach.

Peter Beck, Northeast Asia Project director and Korea expert at the International Crisis Group, said that Bush and Roh “are going out of their way to emphasize their common approach, when they really have totally different ideas about the North Korean problem.”

“The South Koreans ... are forging ahead with all kinds of economic assistance,” Beck said. “South Korea has essentially set no condition. At the same time, Washington is taking an all-or-nothing approach.”

Neither leader directly addressed questions about their differences today, choosing to accentuate their cooperation.

But when addressing reporters, Roh called his country’s relationship with the communist North “the most strategic and stable dialogue we have ever had.”

Bush focused mainly on ridding the peninsula of nuclear weapons.

“It’s in the world’s interest that this happen,” Bush said. “It’s also in our interest that we continue to work together to solve the problem.”

But he did not budge on the reactor issue. “We’ll consider the light-water nuclear reactor at the appropriate time,” he said. “The appropriate time is when they give up the program.”

Bush administration officials have grown frustrated that little progress has been made since the September agreement, and they are concerned that Pyongyang may be seeking to exploit differences among the other five parties.

At a three-day follow-up round of the six-nation talks last week in Beijing, North Korea continued to insist that the parties agree on “step-by-step measures” according to which Pyongyang would be compensated at each juncture, including for any move to freeze and dismantle its nuclear weapons program and allow inspections.

The U.S., on the other hand, has argued that the focus should be on a complete, verifiable dismantling of the program.

The Bush administration has taken heat from Democrats in Washington who say the U.S. approach has only allowed North Korea to build more weapons.

White House critics say U.S. policy on Pyongyang has been incoherent, particularly in contrast to the administration’s decision to invade Iraq in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, which were never found.

The Iraq war has fueled rising anti-U.S. sentiment in South Korea. Bush is deeply unpopular here, particularly among the young, and some polls have shown that many South Koreans consider the United States a bigger threat than North Korea.

Bush and his aides have signaled that they are ready to take a slightly softer approach on North Korea.

One senior aide told reporters aboard Air Force One as Bush flew from Japan to South Korea that the White House was sympathetic to Seoul’s desire to forge closer ties with Pyongyang to bring lasting peace and stability to the peninsula.

The South Koreans’ “tone is different sometimes because, of course, for [them] the demilitarized zone is right at their doorstep,” said Mike Green, a senior White House advisor on Asia. “Seoul is as close to the DMZ and North Korean artillery as the White House is to Dulles airport.”

Green added that Bush “believes that one of the best ways to make sure you have a lasting peace on the peninsula is for the North to open up and see that they’re not threatened by the South, they’re not threatened by the U.S.”

In recent months, Bush has softened his rhetoric on North Korea, referring to leader Kim Jong Il with the honorific “Mr.” rather than describing him as a “tyrant” and his country as part of an “axis of evil.”

At the same time, though, Bush is under pressure from Congress and others not to disregard North Korea’s human rights violations.

*

Times staff writer Barbara Demick in Seoul contributed to this report.