South Korea President Praises North Over Nuclear Talks

South Korea today signaled a further shift from its tough stance on North Korea as its president, Lee Myung-bak, praised the north for its cooperation in nuclear talks.

"I assess North Korea very positively for cooperating with the international community on denuclearisation," Lee said in a televised speech on South Korea's memorial day, which honors the millions that died during the war with the north.

The speech displayed a marked change in tone for Lee, who was elected in a landslide in December after pledging a more robust approach to Pyongyang. The shift reflected growing impatience in some quarters that the decade-old "sunshine policy" of giving generous aid had failed to modify North Korea's intransigence. Lee was determined to inject more stick and less carrot in his policy towards Pyongyang.

Lee started his term with a can-do reputation from his days at the industrial giant Hyundai and as the mayor of Seoul. As mayor, he rammed through initiatives that cemented his reputation as a man of action. Among his most visible legacies in Seoul is an artificial river that starts in the city center, its source marked by a giant snail-like sculpture. He also decreed that buses should run in the central lanes of the city's wide thoroughfares.

But his approach has been less effective at national and international level. He signaled a tougher approach to North Korea by announcing plans to downgrade the ministry of unification, which deals with inter-Korean affairs, as it was distorting South Korea's overall international diplomacy. He also unveiled an ambitious initiative to triple North Korea's per capita income to $3,000 a month if it abandoned its nuclear weapons program and opened up politically.

The so-called Vision 3000 denuclearisation and openness plan was too big a cake for Pyongyang to swallow, says Bong-Geun Jun, a professor at the institute of foreign affairs and national security. North Korea also reacted badly to the move to downgrade the ministry of unification. Lee backed down following protests from within his own party, but the damage had been done.

North Korea broke off official contact with Seoul and reconciliation talks went into a deep freeze. Meanwhile, Pyongyang launched vituperative personal attacks on Lee. His timing was unfortunate, as the Bush administration dropped its hardline stance against North Korea to resume a dialog.

George Bush even wrote a friendly letter to Kim Jong-Il, after previously belittling the North Korean leader. The chief US negotiater in the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program, Christopher Hill, is reported to get on well with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan.

Amid fears that Seoul was being frozen out of this budding relationship, South Korea has had to change gears. The tough rhetoric has stopped.

In an interview with guardian.co.uk, South Korea's urbane chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Sook, said: "We see some signs of sincerity [on North Korea's part]. Most of the credit must go to the US. The important thing is that they have agreed in principle to abandon all nuclear programs and weapons through negotiations in the six-party talks. It will be a long and winding road and we will have to show patience and perseverance in the months ahead."

North Korea recently handed over 18,000 pages of logs from its Yongbyon nuclear facility dating back to 1986. Having been briefed by the US, South Korea is making positive noises about recent North Korean moves. The next step is for North Korea to present its declaration on its nuclear program to China, one of the participants in the six-party talks along with the US, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas.

Kim seemed keen to draw a line under North Korea's alleged nuclear cooperation with Syria. "I believe that such cooperation has stopped and we have seen no sign since last autumn that such cooperation has continued," he said.

While some skepticism lingers as to whether North Korea actually provided nuclear help to Syria, Kim said US intelligence and information on the matter had been credible. "It is more important than ever that we ensure that such cooperation will not happen in the future," he said.

But Kim's fundamental message to North Korea was one of reconciliation despite whatever what was said at the start of Lee's administration. "Our present policy to North Korea is based on reconciliation," he said. "We always prefer to have dialog and would like to assist North Korea by whatever means to re-establish their economy and their bad food situation."

But North Korea can afford to reject South Korea's offers of help as the US has just come through with a previous offer to deliver 500,000 tonnes of rice in emergency food aid. South Korea finds itself in an awkward position, having to watch Pyongyang apparently pulling all the diplomatic strings.

"That's right, they can manipulate everyone around them because they have one-man rule," Jun said. "They are quite proud of it as they do it very well, but I feel sorry for them. The cost of dictatorship means a country that is starving."