Bush, Roh downplay differences

WASHINGTON -- President Bush and South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun sought Friday to de-emphasize deepening divisions between them, declaring themselves fully united in their goals for the Korean peninsula.

Before a White House meeting, Bush asserted that the two governments "share the same goals" and that "the alliance is very strong." Roh said that the two are "in full and perfect agreement."

Yet although the two again called for a resumption of the six- nation talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program, in a brief appearance before reporters they offered no evidence that they had overcome their growing differences on how to deal with Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea.

They avoided any mention of seeking U.N. Security Council sanctions on Pyongyang, a course advocated by some in the Bush administration and opposed by Seoul.

And Bush made clear that the United States was not about to offer more incentives to the North Koreans to cooperate, as the Roh government wants it to do.

Responding to a reporter's question, Bush said that other nations had offered various incentives to Pyongyang.

"The plan is still there, it's full of inducements," he said.

With the six-party talks stalled for a year and Pyongyang showing signs of accelerating its nuclear weapons program, some senior adminis- tration officials have been pushing for a harder line on North Korea.

Roh's government fears that the United States could become too hawkish and has been urging American officials to do more instead to draw Pyongyang back into negotiations.

Although Bush and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared earlier this week that the six-party talks were their chief goal, the differences in viewpoint have become ever more apparent. Some foreign policy specialists in both countries contend that U.S.- South Korean relations are at their lowest point in the past half- century, and Roh's conservative opponents are attacking him for allegedly harming the alliance.

North Korean officials met with U.S. officials on Monday in New York to discuss resumption of the talks. But they have not set a date for resumption of the negotiations; some U.S. officials believe the move might have been intended to throw off any effort to take their case to the United Nations.

Roh acknowledged that in each of the four times he has met with Bush "questions abound regarding the possible existence of differences between the United States and South Korea surrounding the North Korea nuclear issue."

He said there were "admittedly many people who worry about potential discord or cacophony between the two powers."

But he insisted that although there are "one or two minor issues" between the United States and South Korea "every time I meet you, Mr. President, in person, I come to the realization that there is no difference between our two sides with regard to basic principles. In fact, we're in full and perfect agreement on the basic principles."

Bush, also eager to show a solid front, said he and Roh were "strategic partners, allies and friends." He indicated that the six- party talks remain the center of the U.S. strategy.

"We laid out a way forward last June that is a reasonable proposal, and we're still awaiting answer to that proposal. But Friday's meeting should make it clear that South Korea and the United States are of one voice on this very important issue."

Bush, who has sometimes used very harsh language toward Kim Jong Il, might have been trying to accommodate the South Koreans by speaking of him more respectfully Friday. He referred to Kim as "Mr. Kim Jong Il."

Bush and Roh met in the Oval Office for just more than 50 minutes and then had what White House press secretary Scott McClellan described as a "good working lunch" in the old family dining room.

Both leaders, he said, remain "somewhat hopeful" that North Korea would return to the six-party talks.

"We share the same goal of a denuclearized peninsula, a peninsula that is at peace," McClellan said. "We are still waiting for North Korea to respond (to the proposal the United States put on the table a year ago)," he said, adding that there were "no pre-conditions" for Pyongyang to return to the talks.

The statements made by both sides were markedly less provocative than a joint Bush-Roh statement issued on May 14, 2003, the last time Roh visited the White House, when they declared that they "will not tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea." When asked about the difference, McClellan said no one should "get caught up in all the semantics."

At another point, when asked if the United States was seeking "a regime change," a phrase the White House used to describe its pre- war goals in Iraq, McClellan declared: "No one has any intention of attacking North Korea."

Contributing: Edwin Chen.

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