China, S. Korea to boost efforts to prevent North Korean missile test

BEIJING -- The South Korean and Chinese foreign ministers agreed Tuesday to step up diplomatic efforts to dissuade North Korea from apparent plans to test-fire a long-range missile, and President Bush called on Pyongyang to declare its intentions.

South Korea's Ban Ki-moon and China's Li Zhaoxing met for about an hour, discussing strategies for persuading the North not to conduct the test and to resume six-nation talks on its nuclear weapons program, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

Ban asked China to "make efforts for the resolution of this issue by persuading North Korea well," Yonhap reported, citing Lee Hyuck, director-general of the South Korean Foreign Ministry's Asia-Pacific affairs bureau.

Li said China had discussed the matter with North Korea, Yonhap said, but did not give details.

China, a key provider of aid to impoverished North Korea, is believed to be the only country that has considerable leverage with the hard-line regime of Kim Jong Il.

Top priority

Li told Ban that getting North Korea back to talks on its nuclear weapons ambitions was a top priority and that efforts should be focused on ensuring Pyongyang avoids firing a missile, Yonhap said.

Six-nation talks aimed at resolving the nuclear issue have been stalled since November over a dispute surrounding U.S. financial restrictions on the North.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the ministers agreed that "under the current situation, relevant parties should stick to solving this issue through dialogue and peaceful means and try to defuse the confrontational atmosphere."

Also Tuesday, the flagship of the U.S. Navy's Pacific fleet arrived in Shanghai for a visit that reflects warming ties between the American and Chinese militaries. Although the visit of the USS Blue Ridge was planned long before reports about North Korea's apparent missile test, Capt. Jeffrey S. Bartkoski said it showed the "importance of regional cooperation" to promote "peace and security."

North Korea, meanwhile, said the United States was to blame for a "new nuclear arms race."

"The U.S. is the principal criminal of the present nuclear arms race, the very one who harasses world peace and security," the North's main newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary Tuesday, according to the official Korea Central News Agency.

'A grave crime'

"The U.S. should give up its wild ambition for nukes, mindful that its nuke modernization and space militarization will be a grave crime of disturbing world peace and security," the newspaper said.

Bush said North Korea should heed warnings by China and other nations not to test the ballistic missile. He urged the North Koreans to declare "what they have on top of that vehicle and what are their intentions."

Recent intelligence reports have said North Korea may be fueling a Taepodong-2, one of its most advanced missiles, at a launch site on the country's northeastern coast. A U.S. government estimate puts the missile's range at between 5,000 and 7,500 miles.

"I have made clear to our partners on this issue -- that would be Japan and South Korea and China and Russia -- that we need to send a focused message to the North Koreans and that this launch, you know, is provocative," Bush said Monday.

"The Chinese have delivered that message to the North Koreans," Bush said. "And we would hope that the leader in North Korea listened to the Chinese."

Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi headed Tuesday to the United States for talks with Bush on the North Korean missile, terrorism, security and the economy.

The North shocked the world in 1998 by firing a missile that flew over northern Japan and into the Pacific Ocean. It has been under a self-imposed moratorium on long-range missile tests since 1999, but has since test-fired many short-range missiles.

The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security estimated in a report Monday that North Korea has enough separated plutonium to develop an arsenal of four to 13 nuclear weapons, compared with estimates of one or two nuclear weapons in 2000.

The group says that by 2008, North Korea could have enough plutonium for eight to 17 nuclear weapons.

"At this time," the report said, "there is little evidence to suggest that North Korea is capable of making a nuclear warhead light enough for the Taepodong-2 missile."

The group's assessment was based on an analysis of satellite imagery, media reports and statements by North Korean officials.