South Korea's top diplomat emphasized Friday on Novermber 9 that Pyongyang and Washington must keep their promises made in the six-party denuclearization deal, saying failure by one side would allow the other to renege.
According to MOFAT, Foreign Minister Song Min-soon, speaking to a packed audience at the Wilson Center, chided those in the U.S. demanding an immediate full reopening of Seoul's beef market, advising that the issue be resolved patiently in phases.
Song came to Washington as experts began this week to disable North Korea's core nuclear facilities. The process is a part of an agreement struck by South and North Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan as they seek a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.
The five other governments would provide economic and political incentives in phases to match progress in North Korea's nuclear dismantlement, with some of the most significant steps coming from Washington, which would remove Pyongyang from its list of terrorism-sponsoring states, a measure that prohibits meaningful trade and other exchanges with the North.
Asked how North Korea and the U.S. would sequence these steps, Song said the key is for the two sides to keep their promises.
"If any side balks at this agreement, that justifies others to renege fulfillment of the agreement," the foreign minister said. "So we should not give each other any justification to renege from this agreement."
Song pitched the South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA), an accord he said would help both Seoul and Washington to balance their relations with other parts of the world.
South Korea's ties with China are growing rapidly, with more than 5 million South Koreans visiting China every year on more than 100 weekly flights between the two countries, said Song.
"That much we are affiliated, linked with China. We would like to have more balanced economic relations with the U.S.," he said. "The implication, I think, applies to the U.S. as well."
Asked about South Korea's market reopening to American beef, Song advised patience.
Seoul partially lifted the import ban after two years of restrictions imposed with the detection of mad cow disease at an American cattle farm. But senior U.S. lawmakers have vowed to oppose the FTA until the Asian trading partner removes all restrictions. South Korea has said that it will adhere to the findings of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), which in May said most U.S. beef exports are safe.
Song said the OIE guidelines would allow the U.S. to recapture 80 percent of the original market share.
Comparing the issue to a full-course meal, the foreign minister said the dessert, referring to a full market reopening, can come later.
"But some people from some states in this country, the U.S., want to have everything served, including dessert, in the beginning," he jested. "I don't think that's realistic."
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종합지 일간 대한뉴스(등록번호:서울가361호) 다이나믹코리아(등록번호:서울중00175호) on-off line 을 모두 겸비한 종합 매체입니다.
