Seoul, defying U.S., backs North on use of nuclear power

South Korea objected Thursday to a vital American stance in deadlocked nuclear disarmament talks on North Korea, saying that the North should be allowed to run a nuclear program so long as it is for peaceful use.

The South Korean view defies Washington’s insistence that North Korea end all of its nuclear programs without exception and creates a breach in U.S. efforts to insure that South Korea, Japan, China and Russia stand united behind the United States when six-nation talks on ending the North’s nuclear weapons ambitions resume in Beijing in the week of Aug. 29.

Unification Minister Chung Dong Young of South Korea said Washington and its allies should grant North Korea the right to build its own reactors for power generation, while terminating a Western-financed $4.6 billion project to provide the North with two light-water reactors.

International Herald tribune