US attacks Kim tyranny

By MARTIN NESIRKY in Seoul

Top United States arms negotiator John Bolton has described North Korean leader Kim Jong-il as a tyrannical dictator who lives like royalty while jailing thousands and keeping many hungry in a "hellish nightmare".

In a tough speech guaranteed to provoke a blistering North Korean response, the undersecretary of state also said Kim was mistaken if he thought threats to develop and proliferate nuclear weapons would weaken international resolve to halt Pyongyang's atomic ambitions through multilateral talks.

His comments come at a delicate time, with Japan's Kyodo news agency reporting the US and North and South Korea were in the final stages of discussing a proposal to hold three-way talks early next month.

"The last year has seen Kim Jong-il accelerate these programmes, particularly on the nuclear front," he said in a speech to the East Asia Institute, referring to proliferation.

"The days of [North Korean] blackmail are over," he said. "Kim Jong-il is dead wrong to think that developing nuclear weapons will improve his security. Indeed, the opposite is true."

Bolton, widely seen as a Bush Administration hawk on North Korea, spent large parts of his speech painting a bleak picture of life for the average North Korean with Kim at the helm. He mentioned Kim's name dozens of times, and described him as one of the world's "tyrannical rogue state leaders".

"While he lives like royalty in Pyongyang, he keeps hundreds of thousands of his people locked in prison camps with millions more mired in abject poverty, scrounging the ground for food," he said.

"For many in North Korea, life is a hellish nightmare."

North Korea is edging toward talks but has recently repeated its demand that Washington drop its "hostile policy".

Bolton, on a three-country Asian tour that will take him next to Tokyo, said the US and its allies were trying to persuade Pyongyang to start multilateral talks on ending its nuclear weapons programme.

He said the ball was in North Korea's court and it had yet to respond to the latest US proposal on the format. The US wants talks that include China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and possibly others.

North Korea wants bilateral talks with Washington, a line Bolton described as a "one-note piano concerto". But he also said two other tracks should be pursued.

The UN Security Council needed to take "appropriate and timely action" to send a signal to the world that it took the crisis seriously. It began last October when Washington said Pyongyang had said it had a covert nuclear programme.

"Unfortunately, the council is not playing the part it should," he said. "To date, virtually nothing has happened."

Bolton, who visited China before arriving in Seoul, said 11 countries would continue their efforts to try to thwart North Korean exports of weapons and other illicit goods.

The countries are considering intercepting exports and assets.

"Kim Jong-il would be wise to consider diversifying his export base to something besides weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles," Bolton said.

South Korea's national security adviser said it would be difficult for the US, China and North Korea to hold talks this month.

- REUTERS