This was the subject of a WSJ editorial this AM. If they are working to undermine sanctions why should we particularly care about them?
SEOUL Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today urged a hesitant South Korea to enforce a new U.N. resolution against North Korea, but South Korea said it was still reviewing projects that have delivered millions of dollars in hard currency to the North Korean regime.
At a joint press conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, Rice said she wasn't trying to dictate what actions South Korea should take to punish North Korea for testing a nuclear weapon Oct. 9.
"The South Korean government is still reviewing its policies ... work that only the South Korean government can do," Rice said.
Rice, who flew here from Japan, travels Friday to China, where she is to hear a report from a top Chinese official, Tang Jiaxuan. Tang, who met with Rice and President Bush in Washington last week, saw North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang on Wednesday and returned to Beijing today. The United States and North Korea's neighbors have warned it not to carry out a second nuclear test.
North Korea showed no sign of being impressed. "We don't have to care much about this issue," Li Gun, a senior North Korean official, told ABC News.
A U.N. Security Council resolution approved on Saturday bars transactions that could aid North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and calls for U.N. members to try to stop North Korea from selling nuclear materials to another country or terrorists.
The resolution could undermine South Korea's so-called sunshine policy toward North Korea, aimed at reducing tensions between the two Koreas by increasing aid, trade and personal contact.
A South Korean news agency, Yonhap, reported today that South Korea planned to stop subsidizing trips by students, veterans and disabled people to a resort at North Korea's Diamond Mountain. A South Korean company, Hyundai, built the resort and has paid nearly $500 million to North Korea since 1998. Last year, it spent about $3 million in subsidies, according to South Korea's Unification Ministry.
Earlier this week in Seoul, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill had criticized the tourism project and said it appeared to simply funnel money to the North Korean regime.
Ban, however, made no announcements. He said he told Rice that the resort "is a very symbolic project" aimed at reconciling the two Koreas, divided since the end of World War II.
He said he also told Rice that a South Korean-funded economic zone in the North Korean town of Kaesong "has some positive aspects." Fifteen South Korean companies have opened factories in Kaesong and pay $500,000 a month to the North Korean government, which is supposed to pass the money on to about 8,000 North Korean workers.
South Korea also has been reluctant to join a U.S.-led initiative to intercept cargo suspected of including nuclear and missile-related items for fear of sparking a military confrontation with North Korea.
"Our hope is that there are many measures that can be taken" without risking violence, Ban said.
It is possible that South Korea will announce tougher steps after Rice leaves Asia.
"The South Koreans are being forced by peer pressure to do something," said Scott Snyder, a Korea expert at the Asia Foundation, a Washington think tank, who visited China and South Korea this week. But "the North Koreans have a lot confidence that they can out-threaten and outbluff" the rest of the world, he said.
