Koreas Work to Implement Deals
S E O U L, South Korea, July 29, 2000 -- Five high-level North Koreannegotiators came to Seoul today to discuss implementingagreements reached at last month’s first summit between theleaders of the two Koreas.
The North Korean delegation, led by senior Cabinet councilor JonKum Jin, flew in on a commercial flight from Beijing because thereare no direct air links between North and South Korea.
“We’ve come here as envoys for national unity and unificationwith the grave mission of fulfilling the implementation of thesummit agreements,” Jon said upon his arrival.
From the airport, the North Korean envoys, accompanied by 13assistants and seven journalists, headed to a five-star hotel foran introductory round of reconciliation talks that end Monday.
First High-Level Visit Since ’92
It was the first visit to Seoul by a senior North Koreandelegation since 1992, when prime ministers of the two sidesvisited each other’s capitals for reconciliation talks. Thosenegotiations were overshadowed by political tension.
This time, however, there are fresh hopes for peace followingthe June meeting in Pyongyang between leaders of communist NorthKorea and democratic South Korea. Relations between the countrieshave been tense since the 1950-53 Korean War.
The envoys were expected to discuss various ways of easing 50years of animosity between the two sides. A proposed visit to SouthKorea by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il also was expected to be onthe agenda.
No Military, Economic Officials
The North Korean delegation does not include any officialshandling military and economic affairs, a disappointment to SouthKorean negotiators who had hoped to discuss opening a military hotline and connecting rail links across the sealed border.
Long viewed by the United States and other countries as a threatto regional stability, North Korea has been seeking contacts with arange of nations. Pyongyang’s desperation for economic aid isbelieved to be a motive for its vigorous efforts to break out ofisolation.
On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright held talkswith Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun at an Asian security forum inBangkok, Thailand. It was the highest-level meeting between theUnited States and North Korea since the Korean War.
Albright said the meeting was friendly, but largely symbolic.She had hoped to learn about Pyongyang’s reported intentions tocurb its missile program, which fueled the U.S. drive to erect anational missile defense.
Work Toward Runification?
At their summit, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and KimJong Il agreed to set aside the enmity of the past and work towardeventual reunification.
Despite the conciliatory mood, South Korea’s Kim has saidreunification could take two or three decades and has warned hismilitary to stay on alert.
Jon, the chief North Korean negotiator, is a South Korea expertwho led negotiations with his South Korean counterparts on rice andfertilizer aid to his hungry homeland in the mid- and late 1990s.
He also is vice chairman of the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee,which handles South Korean investment in the North and promotesexchanges with nations that have no diplomatic ties with it.
The South Korean delegation was led by Unification Minister ParkJae-kyu.
The June summit was the biggest diplomatic breakthrough inrelations between the two Koreas, which were partitioned at the endof World War II by U.S. and Soviet troops.