Gorbachev says U.S. responsible for North Korea nuclear deadlock

By Kim Hyun

SEOUL, Oct. 1 (Yonhap) -- Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the former leader of the Soviet Union and a Nobel Peace laureate, on Wednesday criticized North Korea for backtracking on a disarmament deal, but laid equal blame on the United States for not doing its part to keep Pyongyang on track.

"It's a problem that North Korea recently backtracked on its pledge," Gorbachev
said in a press conference in Seoul, where he is to attend an environmental
forum. "But we also have to look in detail into the fact that the United States
violated its agreement with North Korea."
He added that the international community "must take into account that the United
States yet calls North Korea an axis of evil and has not yet removed it from its
list of terrorism-sponsoring nations."
Pyongyang halted disabling work at its main Yongbyon nuclear reactor and has
threatened to restart the facilities in protest over Washington's delay in
removing it from the terrorism list. Chief U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill
traveled to Pyongyang earlier in the day in an effort to save the deadlocked
aid-for-disarmament deal.
Gorbachev, who received the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for helping bring down
communism in the Soviet Union and end the Cold War, supported the dialogue
efforts, saying nuclear tensions "should be resolved through the six-party
framework," which also involves South Korea, China, Japan and Russia. The
countries agreed to provide energy and diplomatic incentives to North Korea in
return for its disarmament.
Stepping down in 1991, the former Soviet leader has since reinvented himself as
an environmental activist with the formation of Green Cross International, a
Geneva-based non-governmental organization working on such international issues
as global warming and poverty.
Gorbachev criticized the U.S. and other superpowers for doing little to prevent
global warming which, he says, they helped cause during their industrial
development over the past century.
"The foremost example of disproportionate energy consumption is the United
States," he said ahead of the forum, titled "From Russia to Tuvalu, Climate
Change and Our Future."
"The United States, which has only 2 percent of the world's natural resources and
is inhabited by only 5 percent of the world's population, consumes more than 20
percent of natural resources," he said.
Emerging economies like China and India will have to use up to 80 percent of
energy resources by the mid-21st century to maintain their rapid pace of growth,
he noted, suggesting atomic energy as an alternative.
"I think we need to use atomic energy. The history of its use is short, and some
atomic plants are being removed, but I think the use of atomic energy is good,"
he said.
At age 77, the iconic leader confirmed his political comeback at home. He plans
to form a political party called the Independent Democratic Party to "contribute
to Russia's multifaceted democracy."
Gorbachev was named as a "Hero of the Environment" by Time magazine in 2003 and
received an Energy Globe Award from European leaders this year. During his
week-long trip to Korea, which ends Sunday, Gorbachev also plans to speak on the
resolution of military tension on the Korean Peninsula at a peace forum.