Adam Ward, executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies-U.S., said the South's actions suggest that divisions about how the North Korean threat is perceived and dealt with by the nuclear negotiators "are still very much alive.
"The next round of the six-party talks, when it happens, will be a litmus test to see just what the extent of those divisions still is."
The United States played down South Korea's rejection of a U.S.-led attempt to intercept North Korean ships suspected of carrying nuclear supplies, saying Monday the decision would not harm international efforts to confront the North's nuclear weapons program.
Seeking to maintain a united front against North Korea, which recently agreed to return to long-stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, U.S. officials praised South Korea for taking strong action against its reclusive neighbor as part of U.N. sanctions leveled after the North's Oct. 9 nuclear test.
U.S. officials refrained, however, from criticizing Seoul's decision not to join fully the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, or PSI, which the United States set up to stop North Korean weapons traffic at sea.
"I'm not going to sit here and second-guess the South Koreans. They're valued allies," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters. "They have taken some steps that they'd never taken before with regard to North Korea. And obviously they're serious partners in the six-party talks" involving the Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
Seoul, which has joined the initiative as an observer, favors engaging the North and is reluctant to anger Pyongyang now that the communist-led regime has agreed to return to six-nation talks.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States respects South Korea's decision. Should South Korea "see its way clear to at some point participate in PSI in a more formal manner, then we would welcome that. But again, this is a decision for the South Koreans to take," McCormack said.
Seoul's decision, he said, does not compromise the disarmament talks. He noted "a very clear consensus" among the five nations confronting the North to enforce a U.N. resolution that bans the sale of major arms to North Korea and specifies that cargo entering and leaving North Korea should be inspected.
Officials have yet to set a date to resuming talks, McCormack said. He ruled out November but said there is still hope for a meeting in December.
Adam Ward, executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies-U.S., said the South's actions suggest that divisions about how the North Korean threat is perceived and dealt with by the nuclear negotiators "are still very much alive.
"The next round of the six-party talks, when it happens, will be a litmus test to see just what the extent of those divisions still is."
