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Roh affirms ties with N. Korea

P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE: South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on Thursday affirmed that there was no question of abandoning his country's "sunshine policy" of engaging Pyongyang despite its nuclear-weapon test.

Mr. Roh said in Seoul that South Korea was among the countries endeavouring to persuade its northern and ethnic neighbour to abolish its nuclear weapons.

However, South Korea would continue to strive for "friendly" ties with Pyongyang, he emphasised.

He told foreign corporate executives that Seoul would try to ensure that the de-nuclearisation efforts would not lead to an armed conflict with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

His aim was to reassure the international investors that South Korea was not at risk on account of the DPRK's nuclear-weaponisation drive.

"A peace strategy is an unavoidable destiny for South Korea, regardless of era and regime" in the DPRK.

He said: "We want peace, and have the will as well as the capability to keep peace" on the inter-Korean front. Despite the DPRK's testing of an atom bomb on October 9 and its "further development of nuclear weapons," the military balance on the Korean peninsula "will not be destroyed," he maintained.

Justifies decision

Justifying Seoul's decision to walk the tight rope as regards its long-standing military ally, the U.S. on one side and the DPRK on the other, Mr. Roh said peace on the Korean peninsula could be broken "only when the military equilibrium [in the region] is destroyed."

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