N. Korea likely to continue brinkmanhip under Obama gov't: Vershbow

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 (Yonhap) -- North Korea will continue brinkmanship for the
coming years to teach the international community how to eventually accept the
isolated communist state as a nuclear weapons state, former U.S. ambassador to
South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, said Tuesday.

"North Koreans will continue to use brinkmanship to drive a wedge between Seoul
and Washington," Vershbow said in a speech to the Korea Economic Institute. "We
still don't know whether today's North Korean leaders and the porwerful North
Korean military will ever give up their nuclear weapons."
The remarks by Vershbow, reportedly tapped as assistant secretary of defense for
international security affairs under the incoming Barack Obama administration,
came just hours after North Korea announced earlier in the day that it will not
give up its nuclear weapons unless the U.S. abandons its hostile policy toward
the North and guarantees verified lifting of the U.S. nuclear umbrella over South
Korea.
The former top U.S. diplomat in Seoul, who returned home just months ago, noted
that North Koreans "have been dragging out negotiations for years on the hope
they will be accepted as a nuclear power, something I think will never happen no
matter who is in the White House."
He was addressing North Korea's recent refusal to accept a verification protocol
on North Korea's nuclear facilities, which includes taking samples from the
North's nuclear main nuclear reactor.
In the latest round of the six-party talks last month, North Korea's chief
nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-gwan said his country will accept the verification
regime in the third phase of the dismantlement.
The six-party talks are now in the second phase of disabling the North's nuclear
facilities in return for a million tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent.
The third phase calls for complete dismantlement in exchange for hefty economic
assistance and diplomatic recognition by the U.S. and Japan.
"Kim Jong-il has a very clear choice between nuclear weapons and a normal
relationship with the rest of the world," Vershbow said.
Turning to the pending free trade deal between South Korea and the U.S., Vershbow
expected that the sides will be able to find a solution for early ratification of
the Free Trade Agreement which he described as an impetus for economic recovery
amid deepening global economic woes.
"The goodwill and creativity on both sides" will help "find a solution," he said,
noting the Korea FTA has "the potential to increase economic opportunities which
is more important in the face of the world economic and financial crisis."
Obama has opposed the Korea FTA as it is, citing what he called an imbalance in
auto trade.
South Korean officials challenge the statistics of 700,000 versus 6,000 provided
by the president-elect, saying more than 200,000 units Korean cars made at
Hyundai's Alabama factory was included in the figures while GM Daewoo's 120,000
cars made and sold in South Korea were excluded.
Vershbow said the ratification of the FTA by the Democrat-cnotrolled Congress
should be "a real challenge" due to "the FTA provisions on automobile trade"
which he said is becoming "more sensitive because of the crisis facing the U.S.
car industry."
The Big Three automakers have received tens of billions of dollars in bailout
funds in recent months amid concerns that some of them may go bankrupt due to
plummeting sales and a credit crunch.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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