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Park, Obama vow no reward for N.K. blackmail

By Shin Hyon-hee 

South Korean and U.S. leaders on Wednesday hardened their stances against North Korea after the communist country ostensibly rebuffed their dialogue offer while ceasing to escalate tensions.

President Park Geun-hye reaffirmed her resolve not to reward North Korea’s saber-rattling, urging an end to the “vicious cycle” of blackmail, negotiations and economic assistance. 

U.S. President Barack Obama left the door open for talks with North Korea but vowed not to give in to the “same kind of pattern” that doomed negotiations to denuclearize Pyongyang.

On the same day, the bellicose regime rejected a request by South Korean business executives to enter the joint industrial park in Gaeseong to deliver food and check on their factories.

Pyongyang pulled out all its 53,000 workers from the district on April 9. As of Wednesday, 209 South Koreans remained there after four returned home.

The North churned out threats including a nuclear strike on South Korea and the U.S. after they kicked off military drills and the U.N. levied its strongest sanctions last month to punish a nuclear test.

“We must break the vicious cycle where (North Korea) carries out threats and provocations and then gets negotiations and aid, and again threats and provocations take place only to return to negotiations and aid,” Park said during a meeting with a group of Seoul-based foreign envoys.

Park expressed gratitude for sending warnings to the unruly state against provocations and requested further cooperation to convince it to take the right path.

“When the international community delivers such a message with one voice, (the North) will have no option but to come forward as a responsible member of the international community rather than remain in isolation.”

The meeting was held at Cheong Wa Dae and attended by ambassadors of Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Norway, Spain and New Zealand.

Park and Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae made the overture to discuss the resumption of the Gaeseong industrial complex, suspended recently by the North in fury over what it called a desecration of its dignity.

Seoul’s conservative president on Monday again expressed her willingness to engage but demanded it change course.

“If North Korea makes the right choice, our government will come out on the road to joint development through assistance and cooperation,” she told a Buddhist mass.

In Washington, Obama, too, apparently hinted at talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un but vowed not to reward the North’s provocations.

“Since I came into office, the one thing I was clear about was, we’re not going to reward this kind of provocative behavior. You don’t get to bang your spoon on the table and somehow you get your way,” he said an interview with NBC.

He also said the regime has yet to perfect the technology to miniaturize an atomic weapon to top a missile. That effectively dismissed a recent report by the Defense Intelligence Agency expressing “moderate confidence” about its capability.

While traveling in Seoul last week, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he would prefer to “get to talks” with Pyongyang through either bilateral or multilateral channels but stressed the need for its ultimate resolve for “verifiable and real steps” toward denuclearization.

The communist dynasty, however, refused the two countries’ respective proposals though it apparently left room to maneuver.

The North’s Foreign Ministry late Tuesday criticized the U.S. offer as a “crafty ploy” and “the ultimate in deception” contrasting with the ongoing joint military exercises involving nuclear bombers and submarines.

“Dialogue should be based on the principle of respecting sovereignty and equality -- this is (North Korea’s) consistent stand,” an unnamed ministry spokesperson said in a statement carried by state media.

“Genuine dialogue is possible only at the phase where the (North) has acquired nuclear deterrent enough to defuse the U.S. threat of nuclear war unless the U.S. rolls back its hostile policy and nuclear threat and blackmail against the former.”

The country’s top military command repeated its demand earlier in the day that Seoul apologize for “hostile” acts as a precondition to accept its proposal.

(heeshin@heraldcorp.com)