U.S. urged to take time out from nuclear talks

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Sept. 26 (Yonhap) -- The United States should pursue a strategic pause in
its troubled efforts to produce a workable verification system for North Korea's
recent declaration of its atomic weapons program, a former State Department
official said Friday.
Robert Einhorn, former deputy assistant secretary for nonproliferation in the
State Department, said that prospects are not good for overcoming the current
impasse by the end of this year.
"Rather than make unwarranted concessions on verification, de-list North Korea
prematurely, or risk a downward spiral, the U.S. should encourage its six-party
partners to agree on a pause," he said in a transcript of his speech distributed
in advance of a security forum here.
Einhorn, who is now senior advisor at the Center for Security and International
Studies, is among the dozens of experts on Korea here to attend the Korea Forum,
to open later Friday for a three-day run.
"Under such a pause, agreement on a verification protocol and de-listing of the
DPRK would both be deferred," he said, using the acronym for North Korea's
official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The U.S. and North Korea are locked in a protracted dispute over the consequence
of implementing each other's obligations under a six-way agreement also signed by
South Korea, China, Russia, and Japan last year.
Pyongyang calls for Washington to make good on its promise to remove the
communist nation from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. But the U.S. says
the North should first agree on a verification mechanism.
The secretive North has taken a series of steps to undo its year-long disablement
of the Yongbyon nuclear facilities in protest at the delay in the de-listing.
"With North Korea's propensity for brinkmanship, there is a real possibility that
the six-party process will once again spiral downward, leaving the next U.S.
administration with only unpalatable options," Einhorn said.
The new U.S. administration should use the breathing space provided by such a
pause to forge a common strategy with South Korea, China, Russia, and Japan, he
said.
Other participants in the Korea Forum, meanwhile, include South Korean Defense
Minister Lee Sang-hee, John Chipman, chief executive of the London-based
International Institute for Strategic Studies, and Chung Mong-joon, senior
lawmaker at South Korea's ruling Grand National Party, who is the honorary
chairman of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.
Also on hand will be Gary Samore, vice president of the U.S. Council on Foreign
Relations, Edwin J. Feulner, president of Heritage Foundation, and Michael Green,
former Asia director at the U.S. National Security Council.