Rice, in South Korea, applauds tough stand

SEOUL, South Korea - Despite a symbolic symphonic thaw with North Korea, the only music the Bush administration is making here is with South Korea's new, pro-U.S. president who has vowed a tougher line on his Stalinist neighbor.

On the eve yesterday of a landmark performance in Pyongyang by the New York Philharmonic, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was next door in Seoul, lauding President Lee Myung Bak and his intent to hold North Korea to its pledge to abandon nuclear weapons.

Rice pointedly ignored the event that some have dubbed "violin diplomacy," and instead went out of her way twice to compliment Lee on his choice of the "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's

Ninth Symphony

to cap his swearing-in.

In two brief encounters before reporters, Rice, a classically trained pianist, first hailed "the universal strains of Beethoven performed so beautifully" by South Korean musicians and a choir and then told Lee himself the selection was "beautiful."

By contrast, Rice last week said: "I don't think we should get carried away with what listening to Dvorak is going to do in North Korea."

In Seoul, Rice also noted the United States and South Korea share deep "strategic interests" and "common values," such as democracy, and praised Lee's inaugural address in which he promised to "strengthen our strategic alliance with the United States" and demanded openness from the North.

In his speech, Lee told South Koreans, and by extension Koreans in the North, that only "once North Korea abandons its nuclear program and chooses the path to openness" can people expect to see "a new horizon in inter-Korean cooperation."

Christopher Hill, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said, "We welcome this," referring to Lee's plan to turn a more critical eye to the policy of detente with the North that was followed by his two predecessors. They were accused of showering unconditional aid and concessions on North Korea, as part of reconciliation efforts, while getting little in return, something that vexed Washington.

The disarmament process made major progress in the last year after Pyongyang shut down its main nuclear reactor and began disabling key atomic facilities.

The talks have been deadlocked for months over whether the North has fulfilled its commitment to account for all of its nuclear programs. It had pledged to do that in talks involving five other nations - the United States, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea - by Dec. 31, a deadline that passed two months ago.

North Korea says it has already provided the declaration. Washington says Pyongyang has not yet given a complete accounting, particularly about alleged transfers of nuclear equipment and know-how to other countries.

Rice is in South Korea on the first leg of a three-nation tour that takes her to China today and Japan tomorrow for talks that will be dominated by the North Korea issue.

China has agreed

to a long-standing U.S. request for access to military records that Pentagon officials believe might resolve the fate of 8,100 U.S. servicemen still unaccounted for from the Korean War, a Pentagon official said yesterday.

The deal,

to be publicly announced Friday in Shanghai, according to Larry Greer, spokesman for the Pentagon's POW-MIA office, marks a modest step forward for U.S.-China military relations, which have been strained in recent years, in part by sharp U.S. criticism of China's military buildup.

China has balked

at repeated requests to open its military archives for documents of interest to the Pentagon.

China entered

the Korean War on North Korea's side in the fall of 1950 and succeeded in driving U.S. forces,

which were fighting under

the U.N. flag, out of the North. Chinese troops killed or captured thousands of U.S. soldiers; the Chinese also managed many of the POW camps established in North Korea during the war.

- Associated Press