Clinton Praises ‘Calm Reaction’ After Korean Clash, Urges Talks

Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised the governments of North and South Korea for their “calm reaction” after a naval clash and said efforts to denuclearize the peninsula would proceed.

“We are certainly counseling calm and caution when it comes to any type of dispute, especially one that can cause repercussions and damage that could be quite difficult to contend with,” Clinton told reporters in Singapore today.

South Korea today approved border crossings into North Korea for business and tourism in an effort to ease tensions. Visits to jointly run factories and tourism areas in North Korea proceeded as normal, Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae Sung told reporters today in Seoul.

South Korea’s moves may lessen friction with its communist neighbor before President Barack Obama visits Seoul next week. The confrontation between the warships won’t alter U.S. plans to send special envoy Stephen Bosworth to North Korea in an effort to restart the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, Clinton said.

Bosworth will go to Pyongyang before year’s end to try to persuade Kim Jong Il’s regime to live up to commitments to scrap its nuclear arsenal, State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said yesterday. The decision to dispatch Bosworth was made after “extensive consultation” with South Korea, Russia, China and Japan, the other members of the six-party process, Clinton said.

Not Negotiations

“This is not a negotiation,” Clinton said. “It’s an effort to pave the way toward North Korea’s return to the six-party process.”

Bosworth will “press the basic principles” of a 2005 joint statement by the six nations in which the U.S. affirmed it had no nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula and no intention to attack North Korea. North Korea committed to abandoning nuclear weapons and coming into compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and allowing inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

North Korea subsequently retreated from that promise, and negotiations ended in stalemate last year. Kim’s regime formally quit the six-party talks this year to protest the United Nation’s condemnation of its April 5 firing of a Taepodong-2 rocket over the Sea of Japan.

The Obama administration has said North Korea would get economic assistance, diplomatic recognition and a formal peace treaty in exchange for ending its nuclear weapons program. North Korea told the Security Council two months ago it was in the final stages of processing plutonium for use in a weapon and has almost succeeded in highly enriching uranium, the second means for creating a nuclear device.

Confrontation

North Korea said yesterday its patrol ship was attacked by South Korean warships while on “routine guard duty” in its own waters, and demanded an apology. South Korea’s military said it fired warning shots at the North Korean vessel when it entered South Korean waters. When the North Korean ship opened directed fire, South Korean forces fired back. It was the first such clash in seven years.

South Korean army, navy and air forces are closely monitoring the activities of North Korean troops, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The military deployed two additional warships close enough to the border to deal with any emergency, Yonhap News reported. South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae Young expressed concern North Korea would retaliate because its warship was damaged in yesterday’s firefight.

A merchant vessel digging for sand west of the Korean peninsula returned to South Korean waters and two non-government groups providing aid to North Korea canceled visits amid security concerns, the Unification Ministry said.

“The government will take all measures for security” to prevent people from being nervous, the Presidential Office said in an e-mailed statement. “Still, we don’t want the relationship with the North to deteriorate.”

South Korea’s Kospi stock index climbed 0.8 percent to close at the highest since Oct. 28. The Korean won rose against the dollar, nearing a 13-month high.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sangim Han in Seoul at sihan@bloomberg.net ; Daniel Ten Kate in Singapore at dtenkate@bloomberg.net