US diplomat mentions `roadmap` for handling NK`s behavior

US diplomat mentions `roadmap` for handling NK`s behavior. January. 28, 2012 00:51. yhchoi65@donga.com.

A leading U.S. diplomat said Thursday in Washington that the U.S. has a "roadmap" for taking steps in response to North Korea`s behavior.

Jake Sullivan, director of the U.S. State Department`s Policy Planning Office, said North Korea’s new leadership has “a lot of sorting out to do” on many issues including its policy direction, and that the U.S. is also “in a period now of real introspection there.”

The comments came in Sullivan`s video news conference on “Foreign Policy Priorities for 2012,” in an unusual announcement for the U.S. to admit to reviewing North Korea policy after the Stalinist country`s transfer of power to Kim Jong Un. Sullivan’s comments are the first concrete message sent by a senior U.S. official to the North’s new leadership.

Asked by The Dong-A Ilbo to elaborate on U.S. policy toward North Korea, he said, “Now, North Korea has just undergone a leadership transition, and there is a lot of sorting out to do in that country about their choices for how they would like to proceed on all of the things I mentioned and many other things, including how the North Korean government treats and deals with its own people. And so we are in a period now of real introspection there.”

“Our message to the leadership of North Korea, working in partnership with our allies in Japan and South Korea – and especially South Korea – and working with other partners such as China and Russia is to say we have a roadmap, we have a set of steps that you could take that over time would be as much in your interests as everybody else’s, and that in response to those steps, the international community would be prepared to take steps of its own.”