LEAD: Blair wants S. Korea, Japan in talks on N. Korea nukes

Japan Policy & Politics, July 22, 2003

SEOUL, July 20 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING QUOTES FROM JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE)

British Prime Minister Tony Blair called Sunday for the inclusion of Japan and South Korea in the process of dialogue on North Korea's nuclear weapons program that began in April with China-hosted talks between North Korea and the United States.

Blair, speaking at a joint press conference with South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun after talks in Seoul, said ''peaceful and constructive dialogue'' is needed to resolve the issue of North Korea's nuclear weapons program, as well as its export of nuclear technology.

''It is important that in that dialogue, South Korea and Japan are involved, as well as North Korea, America and China,'' he said.

Blair said the situation is one ''that has to be handled with a special sensitivity -- but it does have to be dealt with.''

''We cannot have a situation in which North Korea not merely continues to develop a nuclear weapons program but also proliferates and exports that technology around the world,'' he said.

On last April's three-way talks in Beijing, Blair said the dialogue process started then should be ''supplemented with the influence and participation of Japan and South Korea so that the whole of the region is giving a very strong message to North Korea'' that its activities on the nuclear front are ''not acceptable.''

The British leader said the international community could also convey through expanded multilateral talks that it stands ready to offer North Korea help ''in making a transition to different type of country'' if it gives up its nuclear weapons program and stops proliferation of nuclear technology.

''If they are prepared to step back from those activities, then the international community is there and prepared to help them make a transition, and change and open up their country in the way that they say they want to do,'' he added.

Roh said both he and Blair ''shared the view that North Korea's nuclear situation should be peacefully resolved through dialogue and that North Korea's nuclear development program must be dismantled in a very viable and irreversible manner.''

''Also, we agreed that we should continue diplomatic efforts to persuade North Korea to respond quickly to the calls to the multilateral talks,'' he said.

Blair arrived in South Korea earlier Sunday from Tokyo, where he agreed with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in talks Saturday on the importance of five-way talks involving Japan and South Korea to peacefully resolve the nuclear standoff.

Last April's three-way talks in Beijing brought senior U.S. and North Korean officials together for the first time in half a year.

Since then, however, Washington and Pyongyang have been unable to agree on the format under which to continue the dialogue process.

North Korea insists it will discuss the nuclear issue only through direct bilateral talks with the U.S., while Washington is calling for South Korea and Japan to be included in the talks.

The nuclear standoff flared in October last year when the U.S. said North Korea had admitted to having a clandestine uranium enrichment program to produce nuclear weapons in violation of a 1994 antinuclear pact with the U.S. and other international agreements.