S. Korea says U.S., North snubbed its offer in dispute
BANKING ISSUE NOT ITS TO RESOLVE, WASHINGTON SAYS
By Burt Herman
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEOUL, South Korea --North Korea and the United States ignored a South Korean offer to help resolve a banking dispute that has bedeviled progress on Pyongyang's nuclear disarmament, the South's president said yesterday in an interview with The Associated Press.
Roh Moo-hyun added that he thought the Pyongyang regime's nuclear program was strictly a bargaining chip, and said North Korean leader Kim Jong Il would give up the bombs if his conditions were to be met: security guarantees, economic aid and normal relations with the United States.
"North Korea harbors huge anxieties or fears toward the United States and (South Korea). And in this climate, North Korea, I believe, chose the development of a nuclear program ... ," Roh said during an interview with AP President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Curley. "This was a political strategy."
In Washington, the State Department declined to comment on Roh's assertion, repeating the longstanding U.S. position that the banking issue was not for the United States to resolve.
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