U.S. Offer to Improve Ties With N. Korea Reported

The United States has informed North Korea that Washington is prepared to take major steps to improve relations if north-south talks are resumed in the bitterly divided peninsula and if Pyongyang agrees to participate in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, according to State Department officials.

The U.S. initiative, which has been discussed confidentially with South Korea, the Soviet Union, China and Japan, was presented to North Korea through the Chinese government last month. This unannounced message from Washington was sent on the heels of a unilateral move to permit U.S. diplomats to hold substantive conversations with North Koreans at “neutral” locations.

The conditional U.S. willingness to improve relations with North Korea was broached to South Korean officials last November by Assistant Secretary of State Gaston J. Sigur, according to official sources.

When Seoul interposed no objection, the U.S. position was conveyed to the Chinese for transmission to North Korea during Secretary of State George P. Shultz’s visit to Beijing early last month.

Officials said a lifting of the near-total ban on trade with North Korea, especially to permit sales of U.S. food and medicine, has been mentioned to Pyongyang as the type of action Washington would take if the north-south talks resume and North Korean athletes enter the Seoul Olympics.

Other possible actions to improve relations include modifications in the annual U.S.-South Korean “Team Spirit” military exercise, acceptance of “confidence-building measures” along the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, approval of visas for North Koreans to visit the United States, and withdrawal of U.S. opposition to North Korean participation in some international organizations.