US envoy to talks urges North Korea to tone down rhetoric

WASHINGTON’S SPECIAL envoy to talks aimed at resolving the nuclear stand-off on the Korean peninsula has urged North Korea to tone down its rhetoric after it said it could not guarantee the safety of South Korea’s passenger jets flying in its airspace.

The latest salvo of sabre-rattling by North Korea came on Thursday when Pyongyang said the safety of commercial aircraft would be in question if annual joint US-South Korean military manoeuvres went ahead as planned yesterday.

“I don’t think the warning was very helpful,” Stephen Bosworth said as he finished up a tour of the region. “Everyone would be much happier if they would drop that line of rhetoric.” North Korea’s plans to launch a missile or satellite were “very ill-advised”, he said.

While Pyongyang insists the device is a communications satellite, North Korea’s neighbours believe it is actually a cover for the launch of a long-range missile, which would put them in striking distance of US territory.

North Korea says the exercises, which involve the 26,000 US troops in Korea plus an aircraft carrier as well as South Korean personnel, are a preparation for invasion.

Tensions in the region have been ratcheted up by the failure of reconciliation efforts on the divided Korean peninsula.

Airlines and shipping companies are taking no chances. The country’s two main airlines, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, began redirecting flights to and from North America to fly farther south to avoid North Korea.

Air Canada and Singapore Airlines, also changed flight paths to and from Seoul. About 30 international flights a day usually pass through North Korean airspace to and from the South.

South Korean shipping companies are rerouting container ships away from North Korean waters as a precautionary step.

Mr Bosworth is visiting the region to advance dialogue to promote detente in the process of ending North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Washington is “reaching out now” is the message from the new envoy. He met Russia’s nuclear envoy in Seoul and held consultations with South Korean officials before returning home.

Mr Bosworth also said the nations involved in six-party talks on the North’s denuclearisation – South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan – want Pyongyang to refrain from the launch.

“We hope North Korea refrains from the provocation of firing a missile, and if they don’t refrain, if that does happen, then obviously we’ll have to take stock and decide how to respond and what we’ll do,” he said.