North Korea makes gestures toward calm after South's drills


North Korea makes gestures toward calm after South's drills
North Korea makes gestures toward calm after South's drills










Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, December 21, 2010



North Korea has told a visiting American politician that it would allow international inspectors to visit a newly unveiled uranium-enrichment facility and announced Monday that it would not "retaliate" against South Korea for conducting military exercises - gestures that seemed intended to calm tensions on the Korean Peninsula, at least for the time being.
Ending a five-day visit to Pyongyang, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) praised North Korea for reacting "in a statesmanlike manner" to the South's live-fire exercises and expressed hope that the North's proposals would "signal a new chapter and a round of dialogue to lessen tension on the Korean Peninsula."


At the State Department, the reaction was more guarded.


"If North Korea wants to reengage with the [International Atomic Energy Agency], wants to reintroduce inspectors into its facilities, that certainly would be a positive step," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told a news briefing. "We'll be guided by what North Korea does, not by what North Korea says it might do under certain circumstances." North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors in April 2009 before it conducted a second test of a nuclear device.



South Korea's military conducted a 94-minute artillery drill on Yeonpyeong Island, which was subjected to deadly shelling by the North on Nov. 23. But it soon became clear that North Korea was not going to respond with "brutal consequences beyond imagination" as it had earlier threatened.
On Monday evening, North Korea's state-run news agency said the South Korean drills were "not worth" a military response.



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