Historic U.S.-N. Korea Talks Mark a ‘Modest’ Step Away From Hostility

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met North Korea’s foreign minister Friday in the first such high-level meeting ever held between the two Korean War enemies but announced no breakthroughs on the key issues that divide them.

After her meeting with North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun, Albright declared that the 70-minute conversation, which lasted twice as long as had been scheduled, “constitutes a substantively modest but symbolically historic step away from the sterility and hostility of the past and toward a more direct and promising approach to resolving differences.”

Later, Albright wowed a crowd of about 600 diplomats assembled for the closing dinner of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations’ regional forum by dressing up in a tuxedo and singing a spoof of her diplomatic adventures in Asia to the tune of “Thanks for the Memories.”

North Korea has sought U.S. recognition for a decade. Instead, it was considered a “rogue state” and a “belligerent beggar” that held the world hostage with its nuclear and missile program while demanding food and financial aid to stave off famine and the collapse of its formerly Soviet-sponsored command economy. Friday’s meeting was significant because it marked another small step by the North from pariah status toward engagement with the international community.

The 23 ministers attending the ASEAN forum--which included non-ASEAN nations--discussed issues ranging from combating the spread of the AIDS virus to joint economic development, Indonesia’s stability and the regional drug trade. Progress was reported Friday toward easing tensions stemming from a territorial dispute among six governments over the Spratly Islands.

But North Korea’s diplomatic coming-out dominated this year’s gathering.

Albright and other ministers said they were not able to confirm Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s report earlier this month that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il had expressed a willingness to abandon his missile program if his nation could launch its satellites aboard other countries’ rockets.

Putin’s report has created intense interest among the U.S. and many Asian nations looking for a way to break the impasse over what they see as North Korea’s dangerous and destabilizing development and export of its missiles to clients such as Pakistan and Libya. North Korea shocked Asia in 1998 by firing a long-range rocket over Japan into the Pacific. The last round of missile talks between the U.S. and North Korea broke down after the Communist regime reiterated its long-standing demand for $3 billion in compensation for lost sales if it halted missile exports.

Asked whether she was able to glean any details of North Korea’s position on the issue during her talks with Paek, Albright replied, “We discussed it, but I was not able to glean.”

A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Paek indicated that he was aware of the discussion between Putin and Kim but was not prepared to offer any details. “We will continue to seek clarification,” the official said.

One foreign minister at the ASEAN forum said he was neither surprised nor worried by North Korea’s failure to spell out its position on the crucial issue, because such key policy announcements would come only from Kim.

The U.S. official described Paek as “businesslike and fully at ease” and “clearly a professional” who did not simply read his prepared diplomatic talking points but was able to exchange views with Albright.

One of North Korea’s key goals has been to persuade the U.S. to remove the Communist nation from Washington’s list of terrorist countries, clearing the way for the lifting of sanctions and thus increased trade and investment. The official said the issue was discussed but declined to give details.

Albright said another North Korean goal, a high-level visit to the U.S., also came up, but she signaled that such a trip may be premature. “It’s under discussion, and it will continue to be for a while,” she said.

The meeting also included some bursts of humor, reportedly a rare quality in officials of the totalitarian North Korea. Paek, who told Albright that he had passed her at the United Nations last year but did not speak, declared that the 63-year-old secretary looked younger this year.

Albright said she remained “realistic in expectations” but was “somewhat more hopeful than before about the prospects for long-term stability on the Korean peninsula.” She said she was encouraged by the North’s self-imposed moratorium on long-range missile launches and by its recent flurry of diplomacy aimed at breaking out of its decades of isolation.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff announced Wednesday that he had agreed to talks aimed at establishing diplomatic relations with North Korea that could be concluded by the end of this year or early next year.

Several nations used this year’s forum, the main venue for discussing regional security issues, to voice opposition to the United States’ proposal to develop national missile defenses at home and a theater missile defense system in Asia. North Korea’s official media have been especially virulent, calling theater missile defenses “the biggest destabilizing military factor in East Asia.”

Goff, who supports disarmament, said he had told Paek that an end to North Korea’s missile program would remove a key U.S. rationale for missile defenses.

On the Spratly dispute, China announced Friday that the governments that have laid overlapping claims to parts of the South China Sea islands have made “notable progress” toward easing tensions, and that an agreement for a code of conduct in the region could be hammered out by the end of the year. The islands are claimed by China, Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.