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Baker calls N.Korea "flaky", says send more troops

SINGAPORE: Former U.S. secretary of state James Baker called North Korea "very flaky" on Wednesday and said Washington should send more troops to South Korea to back up its offer to Pyongyang of four-nation peace talks.

"I think the recent initiative of the United States is a very good one, calling for four-power talks to resolve the problem," Baker told businessmen and diplomats at a luncheon.

"But the North Koreans are very, very flaky. Nobody knows what they are likely to do and so who knows," said Baker, who was secretary of state from 1989 to 1992.

"I think we should beef up our forces on the Korean peninsula" to convince Pyongyang that the U.S. meant what it said about backing South Korea and ensure it negotiated from a position of strength, he said.

There are now about 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea.

Clinton and South Korean President Kim Young-sam called on Tuesday for talks involving Washington, Seoul, Pyongyang and Beijing aimed at securing a permanent peace on the Korean peninsula.

The call emerged after a summit between Clinton and Kim to discuss North Korea's three armed troop incursions this month into the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas.

The incursions flouted the armistice which ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

Baker said Washington should be wary in negotiations with Pyongyang, which wants direct peace talks with the United States that would exclude Seoul.

"I think North Korea is a nation which was built on force. She only understands force," Baker said.

"The only way where we're ever going to get anywhere with North Korea is to be forceful, to be strong and to be credible and therefore I think we ought to be careful about negotiating agreements with North Koreans," he said.

"I think we should beef up our forces on the Korean peninsula. We have to make sure the North Koreans understand we have security commitments to South Korea that we intend to keep and we intend to enforce by all means that are avaiable to us," he said.

Clinton issued a joint declaration with Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto on Wednesday that pledged to keep 100,000 U.S. troops in the Asia-Pacific region, including 47,000 based in Japan.-Reuter