Gorbachev Says U.S. Responsible for N. Korea Nuclear Deadlock

Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the former leader of the Soviet Union and a Nobel Peace laureate, criticized North Korea for backtracking on a disarmament deal, but laid equal blame on the United States for failing to do its part to keep Pyongyang on track.

"It's a problem that North Korea recently backtracked on its pledge," Gorbachev said in a press conference in Seoul where he is to attend an environmental forum.

"But we also have to look in detail into the fact that the United States violated its agreement with North Korea," he said. "We have to take into account that the United States yet calls North Korea an axis of evil and has not yet removed it from its list of terrorism-sponsoring nations."

Pyongyang has halted the disabling work at its main Yongbyon nuclear reactor and has threatened to restart the Yongbyon facilities in protest over Washington's delay in removing it from the terrorism list. Chief U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill was to travel to Pyongyang on Thursday to try to save the deadlocked aid-for-disarmament deal.

Gorbachev, who received the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for helping bring down communism in the Soviet Union and end the Cold War, supported the dialogue efforts, saying the nuclear tension "should be resolved through the six-party framework," which also involves South Korea, China, Japan and Russia. The countries agreed to provide energy and diplomatic incentives to North Korea in return for its disarmament.

Stepping down in 1991, the former Soviet leader has since reinvented himself as an environmental activist with the formation of Green Cross International, a Geneva-based non-governmental organization working on such international issues as global warming and poverty.

Gorbachev criticized the U.S. and other superpowers for doing little to prevent global warming which, he says, they helped cause during their industrial development over the past century.

"The foremost example of disproportionate energy consumption is the United States," he said in a press conference ahead of a forum titled "From Russia to Tuvalu, Climate Change and Our Future," in Seoul.

"The United States, which has only 2 percent of the world's natural resources and is inhabited by only 5 percent of the world's population, consumes more than 20 percent of natural resources," he said.

Emerging economies like China and India will have to use up to 80 percent of energy resources by the mid-21st century to maintain their rapid pace of growth, he noted, suggesting atomic energy as an alternative.

"I think we need to use atomic energy. The history of its use is short, and some atomic plants are being removed, but I think the use of atomic energy is good," he said in reference to meeting country's energy demands and saving the environment, he said.

Gorbachev was named as one of the Heroes of the Environment by Time magazine in 2003 and received an Energy Globe Award from European leaders this year.

At age 77, the iconic leader confirmed his political comeback at home. He plans to form a political party called the Independent Democratic Party to diversify Russia's political spectrum.

"I have been in the environment movement so far, but that didn't mean that I retired from politics," he said. "I'm well over 70 and for most of my life, about 50 years, I lived as a politician. That doesn't mean I am returning to administer the country, but with Russia now democratized, I want to contribute to Russia's multifaceted democracy with an independent, democratic political party."

Yahoo! Asia News//30.09.2008