N. Korea Proposes November Talks With Japan on Restoring Ties : Diplomacy: Kaifu hails move, says Tokyo will consult closely with angry South Korea.

In what appears to be a major change in policy, North Korea on Thursday proposed opening talks with Japan in early November to establish full diplomatic relations.

Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu welcomed the move and said Japan will consult closely with South Korea, where an explosion of anger against Tokyo erupted immediately.

The proposal, which seems to contradict Pyongyang’s longstanding opposition to dual recognition of the South and North Korean governments by major powers, was made Thursday by North Korean President Kim Il Sung to former Deputy Prime Minister Shin Kanemaru in their third meeting.

It was repeated at the first working-level meeting between Japanese and North Korean Foreign Ministry officials and in a meeting with the North Korean Workers’ Party, the Japanese reports said.

The new proposal came only three days before Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze and South Korean Foreign Minister Choi Ho Joong are scheduled to hold their first meeting Sunday at the United Nations in New York. South Korean President Roh Tae Woo said the two are expected to fix a date for Seoul and Moscow, the chief military ally of the Communist north, to establish diplomatic relations.

Although 84 countries maintain diplomatic relations with both North and South Korea, Pyongyang has consistently opposed dual ties with Japan, the United States, the Soviet Union and China as tantamount to accepting permanent division of Korea.

Earlier this month, Pyongyang reiterated its opposition to a proposal by South Korea that Seoul and Pyongyang accept separate seats in the United Nations until reunification is achieved. It also publicly condemned the Soviet Union for moving toward establishing diplomatic relations with Seoul.

Kim, 78, the world’s longest-ruling dictator, was reported to have told Kanemaru that he understood that the Japanese government insists on considering compensation for Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea only as part of negotiations to set up normal diplomatic ties.

“Therefore, I wish to establish diplomatic relations and would like to begin negotiations in early November,” Kanemaru quoted Kim as saying, Japanese journalists reported from Pyongyang.

Kim Yong Sun, secretary for international affairs of the North Korean Workers’ Party, repeated the proposal in a meeting in Pyongyang with Japanese members of Parliament from both the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition Socialist Party.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry official replied “yes” when asked by one of the Japanese officials whether the proposal for talks on relations means a change in Pyongyang’s policy.

An astonished Foreign Ministry official in Tokyo said Japan welcomes the apparent “sudden change.” But the official added that the ministry is still not certain about North Korea’s intentions.

In New York, Foreign Minister Taro Nakayama said Japan will take care to ensure that its new relations with North Korea would serve to bolster security and stability on the Korean peninsula, where 43,000 American troops are stationed as a deterrent against aggression from North Korea.

He also promised to consult closely with both Seoul and Washington.

Choi, South Korea’s foreign minister, urged Nakayama to act “prudently.”

In Tokyo, Ichiro Ozawa, secretary general of Japan’s ruling party, announced today that he had agreed to serve as the leader of a ruling party mission that Kim Il Sung invited to visited Pyongyang Oct. 10, the 45th anniversary of the founding of the North Korean Workers Party.

In Seoul, South Korea’s vice foreign minister called in Japan’s ambassador to protest the sudden move toward full diplomatic relations. Newspapers in Seoul condemned Japan for promising reparations and other economic aid that could help North Korea’s economy at a time that South Korea itself was trying to use the lure of economic assistance to improve its relations with Pyongyang.

Earlier, both South Korea and the United States had welcomed Kanemaru’s trip as a potential contribution to partially opening up North Korea’s closed society.

Japanese scholars speculated that the proposal is designed to extract reparations and economic aid from Japan.

In his first meeting with Kim on Tuesday--at Myohyangsan, a mountain resort 94 miles northeast of Pyongyang--Kanemaru, 76, a ruling party kingpin, said he would stake his political life on Japan’s approving compensation for its colonial rule “even at the point at which diplomatic relations do not exist.” But he also made it clear that North Korea would have to negotiate with the Japanese government on any reparations.

Japanese analysts cited reports of stagnation in the North Korean economy, as well as Pyongyang’s massive foreign debt, as possible motives for the apparent change of heart.