U.S., South Korea push North Korea on nuclear verification

By Matt Spetalnick and Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak pressed North Korea on Wednesday to agree on a verification plan for its nuclear weapons program or continue to face international isolation.

The two leaders publicly skirted other issues that have plagued their brief five-month relationship, including the controversial South Korean decision to only partly lift a ban on U.S. beef imports.

Instead, Bush and Lee presented a united front on the need to set up a process for verifying details of North Korea's program to develop nuclear weapons, which is being dismantled, before handing Pyongyang additional economic and diplomatic benefits.

"I'm concerned about its uranium enrichment activities as well as its nuclear testing and proliferation, its ballistic missile programs," Bush told reporters during a news conference after meeting with Lee.

"The best way to approach and answer those concerns is for there to be strong verification measures," Bush said.

He later flew to Thailand where he will try to draw attention to the plight of neighboring Myanmar's people and on Thursday will go to China to attend the 2008 Summer Olympics despite some criticism about Beijing's human rights record.

In Seoul, Bush's stand on North Korea was echoed by Lee, who took office in February promising a tougher approach than his left-of-centre predecessors to dealing with the communist North.

"Our goal is firm and it is that the Korean peninsula must be denuclearized. If we work with patience and consistency, verification can be done perfectly, and I believe North Korea should cooperate on this," Lee said.

A major Washington concern has been whether the reclusive communist North Korean government has shared any of its nuclear weapons technology with other countries that could use it to attack the United States.

Bush called it a "positive step" that North Korea blew up a cooling tower at its ageing Yongbyon nuclear plant in June. In response to the declaration, the United States did lift some sanctions under its Trading with the Enemy Act.

Even so, Bush said he still considered Pyongyang part of an "axis of evil".

He branded North Korea, Iran and Iraq with that moniker in 2002 because he said they sought weapons of mass destruction that could be used to attack U.S. allies or blackmail the United States.

The United States, China, Russia, South Korea and Japan have been negotiating for years with Pyongyang, offering economic and humanitarian aid in exchange for the reclusive government giving up its nuclear ambitions.

The United States has told communist North Korea it could be removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism as early as August 11 if a rigorous verification process is established, but the discussions have been lengthy.

"They've got a lot to do, they've got to ... show us a verification regime that we can trust," Bush said.