Hinting at Aid, Clinton Urges N. Korea to Join Peace Talks

President Clinton implored Communist North Korea on Friday to enter peace talks with the capitalist South and, in an unusual twist, held out the prospect of Western aid to rebuild Pyongyang’s crumbling economy.

At a White House news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, Clinton said North Korea is benefiting from a 1994 agreement to scrap its nuclear weapons program in exchange for energy assistance from the West.

“They ought to go the next step now and resolve all their differences with South Korea in a way that will permit the rest of us not only to give emergency food aid--because people are terribly hungry--but to work with them in restructuring their entire economy and helping to make it more functional again, and giving a brighter and better future to the people of North Korea,” he said.

In remarks later at the National Press Club, Hashimoto said: “The food situation in North Korea, we understand, is extremely grave. There is no doubt about that.” He said North Korea must make humanitarian gestures of its own--such as allowing freedom of movement for Japanese spouses living in North Korea.

After Oval Office talks on the Korean peninsula and other subjects, Clinton said he and Hashimoto had agreed that while U.S.-Japanese trade frictions have eased over the past two years, they must be careful to avoid a resurgence of Japan’s trade surplus.

“We need to build on this success, to create new opportunities,” Clinton said. “We both want to promote strong domestic, demand-led growth in Japan and to avoid a significant increase in Japan’s external surplus.”