North Korea will remain on the wrong path unless it abandons its nuclear weapons program, the top U.S. envoy to Seoul said Wednesday, urging the communist state to work toward a peaceful and denuclearized Korean Peninsula.
"Without denuclearization, North Korea is on a dead-end road. That's about as clear as I can be right now," U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Kathleen Stephens said at a debate hosted by the Kwanhun Club, a fraternity of senior Korean journalists.
"There really is a choice here to be made and ... there are actions that North Korea could take to demonstrate it is making a choice towards moving towards everything being possible as outlined" in a 2005 denuclearization agreement, she said.
The agreement, signed within the framework of the six-party talks involving the two Koreas, Japan, China, Russia and the U.S., committed Pyongyang to dismantle all its nuclear programs. In return, the isolated and impoverished state was promised normalized relations with the U.S. and Japan, a permanent peace treaty with South Korea, and large amounts of economic and energy aid.
Implementation of that pact has been stalled over a series of provocations by the North that started with two test nuclear explosions in 2006 and 2009, and peaked with two deadly attacks on a South Korean warship and border island last year.
Despite such incidents, North Korea has in recent months said it would like to resume the six-party negotiations that have been deadlocked since December 2008 and even discuss its newly revealed uranium enrichment program within that forum.
The ambassador was speaking as Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, is in Seoul to meet South Korean officials over the resumption of the six-way talks and possible food aid to the North.
"As we've said repeatedly, we would like to see action from North Korea, not just words," Stephens said, declining to name the specific actions Pyongyang could take as it has "little room" to maneuver.
"Words are important, but action also shows the seriousness of purpose and we would like to see actions by North Korea that would demonstrate its commitment to implementing the 2005 Joint Statement of Principles," she added.