U.S. May Use Military Power to Block Missile Export of NK

U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Richard Armitage said that the U.S. would continue to move for the U.S.-NK dialogue and the South envoy Lim Dong-Won will return with good news.

With regard to the visit of Presidential envoy Lim Dong-Won to the North, Armitage said,` I am very glad that the North decided to step forward to dialogue.` He explained that the South and the U.S. had thoroughly discussed about this in advance.

However, he declared that “if a export ship carrying missiles or weapons of mass destruction is found, the U.S. may think of two options to capture the ship and return it to the North after confiscating weapons or to sink it down. ”

Concerning that the Bush administration did not certify that `NK is carrying out the Geneva Agreed Framework,` he explained that “it does not mean the North is violating the Agreed Framework but it means that we don`t have enough information to certify it.”

With regard to a quadripartite talk, he said he is not enthusiastic and added, “ the direct dialogue between Seoul and Pyongyang is the first, cooperation between Korea, Japan, and the U.S. is the second, and a quadripartite talk would be the next.”

Ki-Heung Han eligius@donga.com