N. Korea urged toward disarmament

SEOUL, May 15 (UPI) -- North Korea will not receive any benefits from the United States until Pyongyang makes good on its nuclear obligations under a recent multilateral deal.

In a security forum in Seoul Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow said the dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear weapons programs is the key to efforts to end political hostilities between Pyongyang and Washington.

"It's time for North Korea to live up to its commitments," the envoy told the Seoul-Washington Forum, joined by a number of scholars from South Korea and the United States.

The North "has a lot to gain by ending its nuclear programs and getting rid of nuclear weapons," Vershbow said.

The isolated communist country will be given "economic assistance, normalized relations with the United States and a permanent peace regime for the Korean peninsula" if it gives up its nuclear option, he added.

North Korea missed an April 14 deadline to shut down its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and invite back U.N. nuclear inspectors under a Feb. 13 agreement, complaining its assets held at the Macao-based Banco Delta Asia have yet to be released.