ASIA-PACIFIC: Arms on Korean
security talks agenda
Financial Times; Mar 26,
2002
By ANDREW WARD
South Korea's talks with the North next month
will cover all security issues, including weapons of mass destruction,
Seoul said yesterday.
President Kim Dae-jung said he would send an envoy to Communist North
Korea in an attempt to break a five-month deadlock.
"The talks will be very broad, covering all security issues. We hope it
will break the stalemate," said an official at the presidential Blue
House.
Any negotiations about arms would mark a breakthrough in efforts to
reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula, one of the most heavily
militarised regions in the world. Recent contact between the two countries
has been limited to issues such as aid, cross-border investment and
reunification of families.
Lim Dong-won, the president's adviser on security and unification
issues, is scheduled to meet counterparts in Pyongyang during the first
week in April. "I will give our view on weapons and missiles," he told
reporters yesterday.
Analysts said North Korea's agreement to accept
Seoul's request for fresh talks signalled a de-coupling of inter-Korean
engagement from Pyongyang's more hostile relations with the US, South
Korea's military ally.
"North Korea has traditionally taken the same
approach towards Seoul and Washington because it saw them as one and the
same enemy, but it seems to have realised that one is more friendly than
the other," said a European diplomat in Seoul.
A divide has opened between President George W. Bush's hardline
approach to North Korea, which he named in his
"axis of evil" rogue states speech, and Mr Kim, whose "sunshine" policy of
reconciliation involves a softer approach to Pyongyang.
Next month's talks represent one of Mr Kim's final chances to secure
lasting benefits from his engagement policy before he leaves office after
December's presidential election. For isolated and poverty-stricken North
Korea it could be a last opportunity to win aid and
political concessions from Seoul if a less sympathetic president replaced
Mr Kim.
The talks were agreed at a time of growing concern about the potential
for fresh crisis. Last week, Mr Lim himself said the conditions were
developing for a repeat of the 1994 crisis, when the US was close to
launching air strikes against Pyongyang following the discovery of its
atomic weapons programme.
There was speculation in Seoul that Mr Lim could invite Kim Yong-nam -
North Korea's second in command after Kim Jong-il -
to attend June's World Cup soccer finals in South Korea. He could also press for Kim Jong-il to fulfil his
promise to visit Seoul in return for Kim Dae-jung's historic trip to
Pyongyang two years
ago. | 