Bush to press Roh to implement sanctions on N. Korea
U.S. President George W. Bush said Friday he will press South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun to implement a U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution against North Korea when they meet Saturday on the sidelines of an annual Asia-Pacific summit in Hanoi.
”I’ll, of course, talk to the South Korean president about implementing the…resolution,” Bush told reporters when asked whether he thinks Seoul is sufficiently cooperating on sanctions against Pyongyang.
South Korea said Monday it will neither expand its role in multilateral operations, called the Proliferation Security Initiative, to interdict transfer of weapons of mass destruction and delivery systems nor take any new steps to ”punish” Pyongyang ahead of the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear programs.
White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters that the United States wants to ”have the South Koreans playing a role” in the PSI.
Bush, speaking together with Australian Prime Minister John Howard after their meeting, said the two agreed to raise North Korea as one of the key issues for the summit Saturday and Sunday of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
”We have a chance to solve this issue peacefully and diplomatically,” Bush said, noting that North Korea has agreed late last month to return to the six-party talks, which have been stalled for nearly a year.
Against this backdrop, Bush said, ”It’s important for the world to see that the Security Council resolutions…are implemented.”
”So part of my discussions will be how to fully implement those sanctions that the world has asked for, but also it’s a chance to set the conditions right so that the six-party talks will succeed,” Bush said.
Snow said Bush and Howard agreed on the need to keep pressure on North Korea until the nuclear issue is resolved diplomatically through the six-party talks.
Bush said he will also raise the issue when he meets bilaterally with his counterparts from China, Japan and Russia — the three other six-party members along with South and North Korea and the United States — on the sidelines of the APEC summit.
The resolution was adopted after North Korea carried out its first nuclear test Oct. 9 following its test-firing of seven ballistic missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2 missile, in July.