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During his three-day stay in Seoul, Christopher Hill is facing a tough job of breaking an impasse in international efforts to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions.
At the same time, Hill, assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs, will discuss reshaping security ties with South Korea's President-elect Lee Myung-bak, who has vowed to strengthen relations with Washington strained during his liberal predecessor's five-year tenure.
Upon flying into Seoul on Tuesday, Hill blamed North Korea for its failure to meet a year-end deadline to provide a full listing of its nuclear arms programs and answer suspicions of having a clandestine program to enrich uranium for weapons.
North Korea "is not quite ready to be giving us a complete listing of all their programs, all their facilities and all their nuclear materials. So that is the key issue," Hill told reporters. He called for a "correct and complete" declaration of the North's nuclear programs to move forward a landmark deal under which Pyongyang promised to disable its nuclear programs in return for international economic assistance.
But Hill called for more patience in waiting for Pyongyang's "sincere action." "I am not too concerned about them being a little late. We always like to be on time with everything. That is not the main concern," he said.
His remarks were in response to the North's claim last week that it had already given the United States a list of its nuclear programs in advance of the year-end deadline.
The North's Foreign Ministry said the country had "already drawn up a nuclear report in November and had notified the United States of it." "As far as the nuclear declaration on which wrong opinion is being built up by some quarters is concerned, the DPRK has done what it should do," it said.
But the United States dismissed the claim, saying North Korea has not provided a full account of its nuclear programs. Hill said the North Koreans have not "wanted to list programs we know about."
A partial declaration "is really no declaration at all," and the declaration "must be complete and correct," Hill said.
Seoul's Foreign Ministry said North Korea and the United States discussed the nuclear list in November, but a full account of its nuclear programs was not reported. Many analysts in Seoul warn the disarmament process could be derailed if the United States and North Korea fail to reach a breakthrough on the list issue.
During this week's visit, Hill plans to handle no less serious issue than restoring the alliance between Seoul and Washington. The U.S. envoy is scheduled to meet Lee Myung-bak on Thursday, who won a landslide victory in the Dec. 19 presidential election, on a campaigns platform of a tougher stance against North Korea and stronger ties with the United States.
The Seoul-Washington security alliance has been weakened in the wake of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's years-long pursuit of a new role as a "balancer" between the region's great powers, in a departure from the country's traditional policy heavily focused on Washington. Since taking office in 2003, Roh has sought to distance his country from the United States, while seeking unconditional reconciliation with North Korea.
But Lee has vowed to focus Seoul's security policy on boosting ties with Washington and linking any aid programs to progress in resolving the North's nuclear weapons programs.
Hill expressed hope of better ties under Lee's leadership, stressing the need for a strong U.S.-South Korea alliance to resolve the nuclear issue. "We would look forward to having a very close relationship with the next government," Hill told reporters.
Lee and Hill would address a wide range of issues, such as North Korea, a free trade deal, security alliance and the war on terrorism, according to Lee's office.
Lee's transition team said it was drawing up a new strategy to improve South Korea-U.S. ties. "The two nations' alliance has faced a crisis in mutual trust over the past five years," Lee's spokesman said. "Our basic plan is to establish a future-oriented, comprehensive alliance with the U.S. on the basis of mutual trust and shared values beyond a simple security partnership," he said.
The president-elect plans to send powerful lawmaker and business tycoon Chung Mong-joon as special envoy to Washington late this week or early next week to deliver Lee's personal letter to President George W. Bush.
