North Korea shifts to peace offensive

Analysts seem to think North Korea is shifting to 'Peace Offensive' after sinking the ROKS Cheonan.

Here's an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report By Park Chan-Kyong from AFP-Hong Kong:

After months of tensions, North Korea is now looking for a way out of the confrontation sparked by the sinking of a South Korean warship, analysts said Saturday.

After securing what its U.N. envoy termed “a great diplomatic victory” when the U.N. condemned the sinking without identifying the culprit, the North expressed willingness in principle to return to nuclear disarmament talks.

“The DPRK (North Korea) will make consistent efforts for the conclusion of a peace treaty and the denuclearization through the six-party talks conducted on equal footing,” its foreign ministry said in a statement.

The North noted the U.N. Security Council's statement encouraged the settlement of outstanding issues on the Korean peninsula through peaceful dialogue.

South Korea, the United States and other countries have accused the North of torpedoing the warship with the loss of 46 lives, a charge it vehemently denies.

“Pyongyang believes it put up a good defense at the United Nations as the statement stopped short of blaming the sinking on the North,” Professor Kim Yong-Hyun of Seoul's Dongguk University told AFP.

“North Korea is now taking a peace offensive, calling for dialogue.”

The North's statement also aims to “take the steam” out of an upcoming U.S.-South Korea joint naval exercise and the South's own reprisals including a planned resumption of psychological warfare against the North, he said.

The North warned “hostile forces” against carrying out “such provocations as demonstration of forces and sanctions” in contravention of the U.N. statement.

“They will neither be able to escape the DPRK's strong physical retaliation nor will be able to evade the responsibility for the resultant escalation of the conflict,” it said.

But a defense ministry spokesman said Saturday that South Korea would go ahead with the naval exercise with the United States in the Yellow Sea, which has also sparked protests from China.

The South in May announced its own non-military reprisals against the North, including a partial trade ban and the possible resumption of propaganda broadcasts through loudspeakers along the border.

Professor Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies said that despite the rhetoric, the North's statement is laying emphasis on dialogue.

“Pyongyang is now taking an exit strategy to extricate itself from the row over the sinking,” Yang said.

“The North is struggling to send a message that it is in favor of dialogue. This move is aimed at making the planned U.S.-South Korea joint naval exercise and the South's resumption of psychological warfare appear unwarranted.”

In an apparent policy shift, the North on Friday offered to hold military generals' talks with the United States to discuss the Cheonan sinking.

It announced on the same day that a U.S. citizen serving a prison term in the North for illegal entry had attempted suicide, driven by “despair at the U.S. government that has not taken any measure for his freedom.”

“This is all part of the North's efforts to attract Washington to dialogue,” Yang said.

Professor Jang Yong-Suk of Sung Kong Hoe University told Yonhap news agency that China might have urged the North to come back to dialogue in return for its support at the U.N. Security Council.

The six-party talks — which involve China, the two Koreas, the United States, Russia and Japan — have been stalled since North Korea quit them last year in protest over U.N. censure of its missile test.

The North has previously expressed willingness in principle to return. But first it wants the U.S. to agree to hold talks on a formal peace treaty and an end to sanctions.