Hill suggests NKorea be 'pragmatic' like Vietnam

Hanoi, May 24: North Korea should emulate fellow-communist Vietnam in taking a pragmatic approach to the world that would lift the isolated state out of poverty, senior US diplomat Christopher Hill said today.

Hill told a news conference he had no plans to meet any North Korean officials on his Southeast Asian tour this week and said Pyongyang should ''get on with its tasks'' of shutting down a reactor at the heart of its controversial nuclear programme.

Hill, who met Vietnam President Nguyen Minh Triet yesterday, noted the broad economic, cultural and political relationship that had developed between Washington and Hanoi since diplomatic ties were restored between the former enemies 12 years ago.

''I wish they (the North Koreans) would look to some of the pragmatism that is displayed in Vietnam and move on in the way that Vietnam has done so well,'' said Hill, US assistant secretary of state and Washington's main negotiator on North Korea.

Vietnam, a longtime ally of North Korea, has introduced gradual economic market reforms in the last 20 years and its economy is growing at an annual rate of 8 per cent.

A banking dispute blocking a deal on North Korea's nuclear programme will be resolved, Hill said, but Pyongyang shouldn't be waiting for the money to come before shutting down the reactor.

''I think it is time for North Korea to get on with its tasks. I think it's time for North Korea to pick up the phone and call IAEA and begin this process of shutting down this facility.'' The deal with the United States and China, Japan, Russia and South Korea called for Pyongyang to receive 25 million dollar from a Banco Delta Asia bank account in Macau that was frozen when Washington put the bank on a blacklist in 2005.

North Korea has not closed its nuclear site because the wire transfer has been held up. It missed a deadline in April to allow the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency to seal the plant.

''We have been working very hard on this banking matter. It will be resolved,'' said Hill.

He declined to discuss specific solutions.

North Korea has refused to shut down its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, part of a six-party agreement, until it receives money from an account in Macau that was frozen in 2005 when Washington put the bank on a blacklist.

Hill said he discussed plans for Triet to visit the United States this year, but he said he was unable to give dates and that an announcement would be made in Washington. Vietnam's state-run media has reported Triet would visit in June.

Vietnam, which hosted the annual Asia-Pacific summit and then joined the World Trade Organization late last year, has received delegations from Germany, Kuwait and South Africa this week alone as it emerges from its own period of post-war isolation.

Reuters>