South Korea criticizes U.S. plan for exerting pressure on North

Seoul - President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea said today that pressure and isolation would not persuade North Korea to end its nuclear arms program, pointing up the South's differences with the United States.

"Pressure and isolation have never been successful with Communist countries; Cuba is one example," Mr. Kim told his cabinet, in remarks tailored for an American audience. The United States has announced a plan of political and economic pressure against North Korea to try to force it to halt its renewed nuclear arms efforts.

But today in Washington, the Bush administration suggested that the pressure would be accompanied by diplomatic engagement. The State Department spokesman, Philip Reeker, said the administration was "prepared to pursue a bold dialogue aimed at having a better relationship with North Korea."

South Korea will begin a diplomatic drive to try to resolve the issue, Mr. Kim announced. Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Tae Shik will go to Beijing this week, and Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hang Kyung will go to Moscow the following week for consultations, he said.

"We will work closely with our allies to solve this Korean peninsula problem, and we will firmly oppose North Korea's nuclear arms program, but no matter what, we will pursue a peaceful solution," he said. "We cannot go to war with North Korea, and we can't go back to the cold war system and extreme confrontation."

The statement today highlighted the growing rift between the United States and South Korea, long a close ally. Anti-Americanism has been rising in South Korea, especially among the young.

In Washington, the State Department said today that James A. Kelly, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, would travel to South Korea and other countries in the region to discuss ways of countering the new nuclear threat from North Korea.

Mr. Reeker said Secretary of State Colin L. Powell spoke about North Korea over the weekend with the Australian foreign minister, Alexander Downer; with the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan; and this morning with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of Britain .

Mr. Reeker said the United States would wait until the International Atomic Energy Agency met on Jan. 6 before deciding whether to bring the North Korean situation before the United Nations Security Council. He said there was no suggestion by anyone in the administration that the United States should impose new sanctions on North Korea.

Mr. Reeker denied that there was any emerging rift between the United States and South Korea, noting that the departing and incoming presidents both have endorsed the policy of putting pressure on the North to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

Russia, a North Korean ally, warned it today against withdrawing from the international agreement to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. "Pyongyang's recent decisions to send away I.A.E.A. inspectors and prepare for renewal of the uncontrolled work of its nuclear energy complex cannot but elicit regret," Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov said.

Mikhail Lysenko, the director of the Foreign Ministry's security and disarmament department, also warned North Korea against withdrawing from the treaty. He said Russia supported the 1994 agreement and insisted on a "constructive dialogue" among all involved.

North Korea disclosed recently that it was starting a new program to produce nuclear arms. Then it said it would reactivate another nuclear installation, removed monitoring devices and ordered United Nations inspectors to leave.

[The two United Nations arms inspectors expelled from North Korea, a Chinese woman and a Lebanese man, arrived in Beijing on Tuesday en route to the atomic energy agency's headquarters in Vienna, Reuters reported.]

South Korea's statement today pointed up the growing rift between the United States and South Korea, long a close ally. Angry demonstrations against the American military here are revealing a broader strain of anti-American feelings, especially among young people.

Many South Koreans resent what they see as American condescension, from an era that younger people here do not even remember. These days, South Korea has Asia's second-most-dynamic economy, after China's. Half the people here in their 20's are in college or have degrees, and the country has such large foreign currency reserves that it doles out foreign aid.

South Koreans can rattle off a string of American slights and insults: a Winter Olympics medal taken away from a South Korean skater, a joke in poor taste on an American television show, a lukewarm reception given their president in Washington last spring and the daily friction of 37,000 American troops in one of the world's most densely populated nations.

"It is absolutely necessary to eradicate the toadyism toward the United States," Chun Chu Song, an economics professor with an American doctorate, wrote last week in the daily JoonAng Ilbo. "A conference in Korea is considered enlightening if a famous American scholar attends, no matter what he says."

The anger at the military surged after the accidental deaths last summer of two teenage girls who were hit by an American military vehicle. When an American court martial acquitted the two soldiers who were in the vehicle, protests became mainstream. On Tuesday night, organizers hope to convert Seoul's traditionally festive downtown New Year's Eve into a vigil and an anti-American protest attended by one million people.

Earlier this month, similar mass vigils helped elect Roh Moo Hyun as president. Mr. Roh, a liberal labor lawyer who will take office on Feb. 25, won a much higher percentage of the vote from people under age 40 than from older people.

Now, though, recognizing that the country's security and economy depend in large measure on the American ties, he is asking protesters to use "self restraint."

"To take care of the North Korean nuclear problem is a matter of national survival," Mr. Roh told protest organizers on Saturday, though he also said the need to revise the Status of Forces Agreement, the law that governs the conduct of the 37,000 American troops here, "is a matter of national pride."

South Korea signed an agreement today with the American military to give the South Korean authorities a greater role in investigating crimes committed by American troops.

On Saturday, Kim Hyo Jin, a 26-year-old university student, was seeking participants for the New Year's Eve rally. "When we ask whether these people are protecting us or not, the answer would be no," she said, displaying photos of the girls killed by the American vehicle.

On the one hand, some of the anti-American rallies, an outgrowth of mass rallies last summer by World Cup soccer fans, demonstrated national pride.

"The demonstrations are not about anti-American feeling," said Kim Jae Hwa, a 57-year-old manager of a spice company. As his wife, Sun Sook, 50, nodded in agreement, he said of a demonstration the family attended, "It is more about our people's showing their pride in themselves, trying to be in an equal position with U.S. with our own sovereignty."

Koreans already had a love-hate relationship with the United States, which exerts omnipresent cultural and economic influence here. But there is a backlash. With 69 percent of the economy now dependent on foreign trade, many Koreans contend that they are being passed over for jobs that go to less qualified, but bilingual, Korean-Americans.

Many young South Koreans do not understand why American troops are stationed here. Indeed, young South Koreans are a world away from the privations that their parents endured during the Korean War, a conflict that took one million lives.

South Korea's new leaders are considering a new approach to curb anti-Americanism. "We are telling the young people that American troops are not just here for national security, but for our economic security," said Ben Q. Limb, an adviser to President-elect Roh. "The young people don't know the war, but they know about their affluence." -- New York Times

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