S. Korea plans to hold aid but promises talks

Rice and fertilizer shipments are being delayed.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
South Korea said Friday it would withhold food and fertilizer shipments to impoverished North Korea until the missile crisis is resolved, even as it pledged to hold high-level talks with the communist regime next week.
Meanwhile, a top U.S. envoy agreed with China to coordinate strategy on the North.
It remained unclear whether North Korea was planning to fire more missiles. South Korean officials said another long-range missile may be at a launch site, but the latest intelligence showed no signs the reclusive regime was getting ready for more tests.
Bush frustrated
Meanwhile, President Bush, in a trip to Chicago, expressed frustration Friday with the slow pace of diplomacy in dealing with North Korea and Iran and prodded world leaders to send an unmistakable message condemning Pyongyang's long-range missile test.
He said the U.S. would have had "a reasonable chance" of shooting down the missile if it had been necessary, though America's missile-defense system is still in the testing phase and its capabilities are modest. More than $100 billion has been spent on the system since 1983.
Bush went to Chicago as the United Nations struggled over how to deal with North Korea, which defied world appeals and test-fired a long-range missile that fell into the sea 42 seconds after launch this week. China and Russia have balked at a proposed Japanese resolution to impose sanctions on North Korea.
"What matters most of all is for Kim Jong Il to see the world speak with one voice," Bush said. "That's the purpose, really."
Asked if he felt a sense of urgency in dealing with North Korea and Iran, Bush said, "I'm realistic about how things move in the world." He said he wanted diplomatic rather than military solutions.
Sanctions effort
Japan and the United States have led an effort for the U.N. to impose sanctions, but China and Russia have called for softer measures. On Friday, Japan circulated a draft resolution that would order countries to "take those steps necessary" to keep the North from acquiring items that could be used for its missile program. Diplomats said it could be put to a vote Saturday.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, dispatched to the region in the wake of the missile barrage, met with Chinese officials and won agreement to work together to restore regional calm. Hill said the Chinese, the North's top allies, were plainly displeased by the missile tests.
"They were very clear in their views of the North Korean missile launches, very clear that they have no interest in seeing this happen and do not regard this in any way positively," Hill said before leaving Beijing for South Korea. He was also expected to visit Japan.
South Korea, which has worked for warmer ties with Pyongyang since a 2000 North-South summit, attempted to take a middle path, withholding aid shipments and rejecting a Northern request for military talks, but also announcing it would hold Cabinet-level meetings with the North next week.
Rice on hold
Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok said Seoul would hold off on plans to send 500,000 tons of rice and 100,000 tons of fertilizer to North Korea.
"This will continue until there is an exit out of the missile problem," Lee's spokesman, Yang Chang-seok, quoted him as saying, without explaining what would constitute an exit.
The North had requested 450,000 tons of fertilizer this year, of which the South has already shipped 350,000 tons. Pyongyang, which is largely dependent on handouts of food and other supplies to maintain its poverty-stricken population, has also asked for 500,000 tons of rice.
South Korea also turned down a North Korean proposal to hold military talks this week, saying the time was not right. But Cabinet-level talks originally scheduled to start next Tuesday in the southern city of Busan were to go ahead, officials said.
"The government judged that it's necessary to continue with dialogue efforts to resolve the current situation over the North's missile launch," said Lee Kwan-se, a Unification Ministry official.
Uncertainty surrounded North Korea's next step. South Korea's defense agency said an additional long-range Taepodong-2 missile could be at the North's launch site, but that a further test was not imminent.
The North, however, said it had the right to test missiles.
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