U.S. Lawmaker Enters S. Korea From the North

After what he called “very useful and productive” discussions with North Korean President Kim Il Sung, Rep. Gary L. Ackerman (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday became the first American civilian ever to cross the demilitarized zone from North Korea into South Korea.

Carrying his travel bag and wearing a souvenir cap, Ackerman, chairman of the Asia-Pacific Affairs subcommittee of the House Foreign Relations Committee, stomped on a narrow cement slab marking the 38th Parallel separating hostile armies of 1.7 million and said, “It was a very short walk down a very long road.”

Since the 1950-53 Korean War, no foreign civilians have been allowed to cross the border. Only one, a Swedish ambassador to China, did so before--walking into North Korea without permission in 1966.

The north’s official Korean Central News Agency said permission for the crossing was “an exceptional step” that “takes into account the intention of Gary Ackerman to see the abnormal situation of the divided Korean Peninsula at first hand.”

Ackerman told reporters at this truce village 35 miles north of Seoul that he hoped his crossing, which he called a symbol of the hope for Korean unification, would be the first of many. But on the substance of his meeting Monday with the 81-year-old Stalinist dictator who has controlled North Korea since 1945, the congressman was tight-lipped.

He said only that he hoped his four-day visit to North Korea would “open a new window to problems on the Korean Peninsula.” Accompanied by C. Kenneth Quinones, the State Department’s North Korea desk officer, and two congressional staffers, he arrived in Pyongyang on Saturday from Beijing.

Asked about discussions on North Korea’s refusal to accept international inspections of its nuclear facilities, Ackerman said only that Kim “was very attentive to my presentation, and I was very attentive to his.”

In Washington, a senior U.S. official acknowledged that Ackerman had met several times with Assistant Secretary of State Winston Lord before his trip to Pyongyang. But this official said the congressman is not representing the Clinton Administration and is not acting as an American intermediary between the two Koreas.

In a separate action in Pyongyang, North Korea announced that it will negotiate only with the United States over the nuclear inspection issue and no longer deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

In Washington, the senior U.S. official said the United States insists that North Korea work out an accommodation with the IAEA.

“There is a sense of urgency to this issue,” the official said.

Times staff writer Jim Mann in Washington contributed to this story.