Anti-North Korean protesters from conservative, right-wing and pro-US civic groups burn effigies of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (right), current leader Kim Jong-un (centre) and the North’s founder Kim Il-sung in central Seoul yesterday.
Tokyo: US Secretary of State John Kerry pushed a message of dialogue with North Korea at the end of an Asia tour yesterday, as the world watched to see if Pyongyang will go ahead with a defiant missile launch.
The North has a habit of linking high-profile military tests with key dates, and expectations were high of a medium-range missile test to coincide with yesterday’s birthday celebrations for its late founding leader Kim Il-Sung.
Kerry’s whirlwind tour of South Korea, China and Japan was dominated by North Korea and the soaring tensions on the Korean peninsula, with the top US diplomat stressing a willingness to “reach out” to Pyongyang.
Kerry, who met with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the final leg of his trip in Tokyo yesterday, said Washington was open to “authentic and credible” negotiations.
“But the burden is on Pyongyang,” he said, adding that the North had to take “meaningful steps” to show it would honour past commitments.
Already assured of the support of US allies South Korea and Japan, Kerry said a commitment he received from China to work together to reduce tensions showed the world was speaking with one voice.
“One thing is certain: We are united. There can be no confusion on this point,” he said.
The Korean peninsula has been in a state of heightened military tension since the North carried out its third nuclear test in February.
Incensed by fresh UN sanctions and joint South Korea-US military exercises, Pyongyang has spent weeks issuing blistering threats of missile strikes and nuclear war.
Washington insists that the “six-party” talks on denuclearisation — which take in both Koreas, Japan, Russia, China and the US — is the only forum at which it will sit with Pyongyang.
“It seems Kerry on this trip was focused on defusing the immediate tensions,” Yang Moo-Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul said. “The offer of dialogue was very general and conditional, but this was his opening bid. A lot will depend on how the North responds,” Yang said.
In Seoul, Kerry gave Washington’s public blessing to peace overtures made by South Korea’s new president, Park Geun-Hye, who in recent days has signalled the need to open a dialogue and “listen to what North Korea thinks”. But the North rejected the overtures as a “crafty trick” to conceal Seoul’s aggressive intentions.
“It is very regrettable that the North dismissed our offer,” the South’s Unification Ministry said yesterday, labelling Pyongyang’s response “totally incomprehensible”. North Korea’s current leader and Kim Il-Sung’s grandson, Kim Jong-Un, opened yesterday’s birthday events with a visit to the mausoleum in Pyongyang housing the embalmed bodies of his grandfather and his father Kim Jong-Il.
State television interspersed musical programming with patriotic films, documentaries on the life of Kim Il-Sung and footage of Korean soldiers honing their martial arts skills.
The missiles mobilised by the North for a possible launch are reported to be untested Musudan models with an estimated range of up to 4,000km. AFP
