
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 14, 1994                    TAG: 9406140364 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A6    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY DENNIS JOYCE, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940614                                 LENGTH: Medium

DIPLOMACY STILL POSSIBLE SOLUTION, FORMER ENVOY SAYS

{LEAD} The United States should offer more carrots to go with the sticks of international sanctions as it tries to stop North Korea from developing nuclear weapons, a former ambassador to South Korea says.

Donald P. Gregg, who served as ambassador in Seoul for four years under President Bush, said even with North Korea's long history of isolationism, diplomacy still holds promise as a way to end the nuclear standoff.

{REST} ``We're not telling them what we will give them if they give it up,'' said Gregg, 66, who will speak Thursday night at Virginia Wesleyan College in Virginia Beach.

Kim Il Sung continues to push independence at all costs, as he has for four decades as North Korea's leader. But new political powers are emerging that are willing to bargain for economic assistance, Gregg said.

``They are the most isolated nation in the world and their past track record is in some ways appalling, but I think they have learned a lot about the world in the last seven or eight years.''

Gregg, who returned Sunday from a six-day visit to South Korea, sees no crisis developing in North Korea's growing resistance to international pressure.

He cautioned against reading too much into the nation's withdrawal Monday from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the organization trying to determine whether North Korea is making bombs from reactor fuel.

Gregg also views the South Korean mobilization of more than 6 million national guard troops Monday as no more than an automatic response to North Korean saber-rattling, and calls former President Jimmy Carter's visit to North Korea a positive step.

``I came away from my visit with mixed feelings - probably more plus than minus. There's the strength of the Korean economy, the nation's self-confidence, and a terrific American military commander - Gary Luck - who's about the calmest man in town.''

Luck, an Army general, commands 37,000 U.S. troops on the Korean peninsula.

Clinton should take a lesson from North Korea's neighbors, including Japan and China, who are less strident on the nation's growing nuclear capability, Gregg said.

``As we twang away on that note, we do so on an issue our allies in that region see a little differently. They are not nearly so concerned about nuclear weapons as they are about living with North Korea as a neighbor,'' Gregg said.

``Clinton should reinstate the kind of broader dialogue that we had under Bush.''

by CNB