Clinton Smooths Rift With S. Korea Leader

President Clinton and South Korean President Kim Young Sam appeared Sunday to patch up a dispute that had strained ties between the United States and one of its foremost Pacific allies, but they failed to agree on ways to restart stalled initiatives aimed at bringing peace to the Korean peninsula.

A statement issued by the two leaders after the meeting papered over differences on how to revive both a proposal for Korean peninsula peace talks and a complex agreement to halt North Korean efforts to develop nuclear weapons.

“There’s divergence,” summed up a senior administration official. “It’s still very difficult.”

Before resuming either effort, Seoul is demanding an apology from Communist North Korea for the incursion of a spy submarine that ran aground on the South Korean coast in September, setting off a bloody manhunt that left more than two dozen soldiers and civilians from both sides dead.

The United States also has called for an apology. But it wants to revive the nuclear agreement, which promises North Korea two nuclear power stations and oil supplies in exchange for ending its nuclear weapons program. Washington also wants to revive a proposal for talks between the U.S., China and the two Koreas to bring a formal end to the Korean War.

Clinton’s strong, personal condemnation of the North’s actions, however, did manage to smooth over the rift in U.S. relations with Seoul stemming from the submarine incident, according to aides.

Initial U.S. calls for the North and South to use “mutual restraint” in the wake of that incident stunned South Koreans, who felt that their biggest ally was suddenly equating them with their enemy.

“The point is that this meeting did underline the solidarity of the alliance,” Winston Lord, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told reporters.

The Kim meeting was one of four one-to-one sessions Clinton had with Asian presidents in a hectic day of personal diplomacy that has become a major part of the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, known as APEC. The forum brings together leaders of 18 major Pacific rim governments, giving them the opportunity to meet both individually and as a group.

Earlier in the day, Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin announced an exchange of Sino-U.S. summits that will take place over the next two years. Clinton also paid a brief courtesy call on Philippine President Fidel Ramos and talked with Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto about trade issues and reducing the visibility of the U.S. military presence on Okinawa, the southern island that is home to most of the U.S. troops in Japan.

Today, Clinton and the other APEC leaders will fly by helicopter to nearby Subic Bay, a onetime U.S. military facility, for a daylong retreat of informal contacts and talks on economic and trade issues that will produce a final communique later in the day.

During the talks with Clinton on Sunday, South Korea’s Kim “repeatedly underscored the need for a North Korean apology [for the submarine incident] as well as assurances that such an act will not be repeated,” a South Korean official traveling with Kim said. Otherwise, he said, “it would be difficult to convince the nation and the National Assembly to agree to proceed” with the nuclear deal.

South Korea agreed to help finance the North’s nuclear energy effort as part of a 1994 accord that was hailed as bringing an end to one of the world’s most serious threats of nuclear proliferation.

But Kim stressed in his talks with Clinton that “it is realistically difficult to send engineers to the North to carry out the light-water nuclear reactor project because their safety is not assured,” the South Korean official said.

Lord, asked about such concerns, said that “any South Koreans going north would have to be assured of their safety before you would expect them to go.”

“But that’s not the only aspect of moving ahead” with the nuclear deal, Lord added.

In his talks with Jiang, Clinton won backing for proposed four-party talks to negotiate a formal end to the Korean War more than four decades after a cease-fire ended the fighting there. China’s support could help nudge North Korea toward the negotiating table.

In a reflection of the high level of concern about events unfolding on the Korean peninsula, Clinton’s 45-minute meeting with Japan’s Hashimoto also began with a discussion of the Korean nuclear deal, which Japan is helping to finance, and the proposed four-party talks.

Clinton and Hashimoto underscored the need for Tokyo, Washington and Seoul to stick together in their dealings with the North.

The two leaders also expressed “mutual determination” to conclude discussions about the future of the U.S. military presence on Okinawa, Lord said. Those talks are aimed at reducing irritations caused by U.S. military activities, in part by returning some land to Japanese control without reducing the strength of U.S. military capabilities in the region.

Particular emphasis was placed on finding alternative facilities so that Futenma Marine Corps Air Station can be returned to Japanese control, Japanese Foreign Ministry official Tadamichi Yamamoto said. Noise from Futenma has been a particular source of aggravation to Okinawans. Defense Secretary William J. Perry will visit Tokyo next week in a bid to bring the Okinawa talks to a conclusion, Lord said.

The U.S.-Japan economic relationship was also “a very important part” of the Clinton-Hashimoto meeting, Lord said.

“The president made the point that we’ve got to have a solid economic relationship because this is one of the underpinnings of the overall strategic relationship with Japan, which, in turn, is crucial for the region and the world,” Lord said.

Clinton stressed the need to settle a dispute over foreign access to the Japanese insurance market by an agreed-upon deadline of Dec. 15, Lord said. Clinton also mentioned the importance of civil aviation talks, in which the United States is pressing Japan to agree to more open international competition.

After his meeting with Hashimoto, Clinton said the prime minister had “reaffirmed his willingness to resolve any remaining disputes between us.”

“If the economy keeps growing in Japan, that should help us reduce the trade imbalance,” Clinton added.

Hashimoto also welcomed the improved atmosphere in U.S.-China ties, a Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

In Washington, meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) proposed Sunday that the United States permanently grant China normal trade relations, while continuing to emphasize the importance of human rights.

Daschle, just back from a trip to China, said on “Fox News Sunday” that the U.S. can’t develop a better relationship with China by keeping the Asia giant’s trade status in uncertainty through annual reviews that use it as the standard for dealing on all other issues.

China’s most-favored-nation trade status must be reviewed every year.