WASHINGTON: The White House said on Wednesday it would send an envoy to North Korea to reopen security talks with Pyongyang for the first time in almost two years, signalling the administration’s determination to once again engage the communist outpost.
President Bush in January labelled North Korea a member of the “axis of evil” — along with Iraq and Iran — but by summer administration officials had already decided to once again pursue a dialogue. The idea was killed after a deadly naval skirmish between North and South Korea on June 29.
After Pyongyang expressed regret for the incident, Secretary of State Colin Powell met his North Korean counterpart for a 15- minute cup of coffee during an Asian regional security conference in Brunei in July. But debate continued within the administration over the right timing for a resumption of talks until last week, when Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made a dramatic visit to North Korea.
Analysts interpreted Koizumi’s trip as an attempt by regional powers such as Japan and South Korea to prod the United States into action. Koizumi telephoned Bush last week to urge him to “act in a way to erase security concerns through dialogue following up on my meeting.”
In an interview last week with The Washington Post, a senior administration official signalled the White House would react positively, though there is skepticism within the administration that relations will improve quickly. The official said that James Kelly, the assistant Secretary of State for East Asian affairs, would head the talks.
“I don’t want to leave the impression that just because Kelly goes there, things are going to get immediately better,” the official said. “This is a very hard agenda with the North Koreans, and all we’re doing is opening discussions. I don’t expect any breakthroughs.”
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush on Wednesday informed South Korean president Kim Dae-jung of his decision to send an envoy. Kim had made his “sunshine policy” with North Korea a hallmark of his presidency, but he was deeply embarrassed when Bush suspended talks — started by former President Clinton — shortly after he took office.
Both leaders “agreed that real progress with the North depends on full resolution of the security issues on the Korean Peninsula, including the North’s possession and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles,” Fleischer said.
The State Department, which had urged a resumption of dialogue, paved the way for the decision through talks with the North Koreans in New York on Monday and Tuesday, officials said.
Fleischer made clear Bush still holds North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il in contempt. The president deplores Kim Jong-Il’s “starvation of his own people, the militarization efforts that he is leading, the massive number of conventional weapons that he has on the border with South Korea, as well as proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” he said. —Dawn/LAT-WP News Service (c) The Washington Post