Embassy Row

North Korean future

The U.S. ambassador to South Korea has high hopes for the eventual transition of North Korea into an open society with normal diplomatic relations with the rest of the world.

However, the North’s secretive, Stalinist regime must prove it is worthy of the potential international benefits by completely closing down all of its nuclear weapons programs, Ambassador Alexander Vershbow said in a recent speech. North Korea shut down its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon on July 14, as part of a February agreement with the United States and negotiators from China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.

“The United States is committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and we are committed to using diplomacy to get there,” Mr. Vershbow said at the Hua Gye Sah International Zen Center near Seoul.

He explained that the United States is prepared to establish full diplomatic relations with North Korea and help the economically crippled country reform a political system that has brought the nation to the edge of starvation.

“But denuclearization is the key,” he said. “We aren’t prepared to settle for a partial solution that leaves North Korea with even a small number of nuclear weapons. Complete normalization of relations and closer ties can only come with the complete abandonment of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and programs.”

Mr. Vershbow envisioned a “peace regime” as a reward for North Korea’s cooperation.

“On the Korean Peninsula, the goal that is potentially within our grasp is a peace regime. … It would include a formal end to the Korean War after 57 years and establish normal international borders between the two Koreas,” he said.

“A peace regime is an act of statesmanship that will require mutual trust between the directly concerned parties — the two Koreas, the United States and China — and strong support from the South Korean people.”

Pushing trade talks

The U.S. ambassador to Brazil says President Bush and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva plan to work together to make progress on world trade talks, as major trade negotiators met this week in Geneva.

“The presidents are very, very much focused on getting a positive response,” Ambassador Clifford Sobel told the Rio de Janeiro Industry Federation on Monday.

“It’s complicated, but we’ve not given up, and perhaps with leadership like President Bush and President Lula, we can still be successful.”

The United States and Brazil are parties to the World Trade Organization’s round of talks that began in 2001 in Doha, Qatar. The so-called “Doha Round” stalled last year over disagreements between developed nations including the United States, Japan and members of the European Union and developing countries led by Brazil, India and China.

Mr. Sobel indicated that the United States would be interested in helping break the deadlock by opening the trade talks to more nations.

Mourning a king

The Afghan Embassy today will open a condolence book for visitors to express their sorrow over the death of the last king of Afghanistan.

Mohammad Zahir Shah, who reigned from 1933 to 1973, when he was overthrown in a coup engineered by his cousin, died Monday in Afghanistan, where he was known as the “Father of the Nation.”

Afghan Ambassador Said T. Jawad noted that the former monarch was a symbol of national unity. He returned to Afghanistan in 2002, after 29 years in exile.

“His majesty, the former king, will live in the hearts of the Afghan people and will be remembered as a benevolent, modest, unifying, just and patriotic leader,” Mr. Jawad said.

The body of the king was interred in a hillside family tomb in Kabul yesterday.

The condolence book will be open from 9 a.m. until noon and from 1 to 4 p.m. today and from 9 a.m. to noon tomorrow at the embassy at 2341 Wyoming Ave. NW.

Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297, fax 202/832-7278 or e-mail jmorrison@ washingtontimes.com.