SEOUL, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said Thursday he was still waiting for a positive response from North Korea to the "joint comprehensive" proposal to resolve the years-long nuclear standoff, calling for Washington's patience.
In a special interview with local broadcaster MBC-TV, Roh also called for the United States to conclude its probe as early as possible into a Macau-based bank suspected of helping the North's illicit activities to revive long-stalled six-nation talks on the nuclear crisis.
North Korea has boycotted the six-party talks since late last year, citing U.S. sanctions imposed on the Banco Delta Asia accused of laundering money for North Korea.
Since the United States launched an investigation into the bank in September 2005, North Korea vowed not to return to the six-way talks until the United States lifts the sanctions on the Macau bank, believed to be choking Pyongyang's cash flow.
In a Sept. 14 summit, Roh and President George W. Bush agreed to spearhead a "comprehensive joint approach" aimed at bringing the recalcitrant North back to the so-called six-party talks that also involve China, Russia and Japan.
The proposal was considered the last opportunity for South Korea to take the lead in resolving the nuclear crisis peacefully and diplomatically.
North Korea has yet to respond to the proposal, but Roh said he was still hopeful because Pyongyang did not reject the overture.
"North Korea cannot be said to have rendered a response. However, the North is aware of it and has not expressed proactively a negative opinion until now," Roh said in the midnight television program.
"We continue to proceed with this proposal without giving it up," he said. "We still see a possibility in this and we continue to proceed because it is not necessarily negative that no response has been rendered."
Roh declined to give any details of what was contained in the proposal, but defined it as a "procedural approach" and a new starting point linked to the Sept. 19, 2005 agreement on North Korea's nuclear drive.
Under the Sept. 19 joint statement, the first formal document since the six-nation talks began in August 2003, the North agreed to abandon its existing nuclear weapons and all related programs, as well as return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty "at an early date."
In return, North Korea would benefit from energy aid from South Korea, begin talks to normalize relations with the United States and Japan, in addition to negotiations on the provision of light-water reactors in the North "at an appropriate time" and the establishment of a peace regime on the Korean peninsula to replace the armistice that ended the three-year Korean War in 1953.
But no progress has since been made on implementing the joint statement and the six-way nuclear talks have been deadlocked.
In Thursday's interview, Roh said his country is ready to shoulder costs for implementing the Sept. 19 statement in order to play a leading role in defusing the nuclear crisis.
"We will bear any burden that we should because the cost for peace and reunification in the future will ultimately become our responsibility and we can reduce these costs if we prepare ourselves and take the necessary measures now rather than later," he said.
Roh also made clear that South Korea is opposed to any preemptive military strike on North Korea to end the nuclear standoff.
"There has been talk that the United States and even Japan may launch a preemptive attack on North Korea. But any use of force against North Korea prior to its use of force is not desirable, considering the unimaginable impact on the whole Korean peninsula," he said.
"The South Korean government is in the midst of making various diplomatic efforts in preparation for any slim chance of the North carrying out a nuclear test," Roh said.
Roh also called on the United States to finalize its financial probe into the Macau bank to resume the deadlocked nuclear talks, saying he expressed the hope of an early conclusion of the investigation when he met U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in Washington earlier this month.
"I do hope that the investigation would be completed at an early date because the six-party talks are stalled over the issue," Roh said.
Roh's remarks come amid reports that the United States is running out of patience and is set to give up efforts for dialogue with North Korea.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this month that time was running out to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal this week, Rice said she expected to visit Asia in the next six weeks "to take stock and see whether or not one last push to get the six-party talks back on track can be made."
