U.S. Expects to Revive N. Korea Missile Talks

In another sign of easing tensions on the Korean peninsula, senior U.S. officials said today that they expect to soon resume long-stalled talks aimed at persuading North Korea to halt the development, testing, deployment and export of ballistic missiles.

The officials, speaking en route to Beijing with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, said they expect to announce a date for negotiations “very shortly.” The high-level talks with North Korea broke off in March 1999.

Momentum for greater change thus appeared to be mounting as Albright arrived here at the start of a hastily arranged three-day trip to China and South Korea that will focus on the seismic political shifts seemingly underway in northeast Asia.

On the trip across the Pacific, U.S. officials welcomed a pledge by North Korea to continue its moratorium on test flights of ballistic missiles. A State Department official called the extension of the 9-month-old moratorium “very important” because it “is self-imposed and not legally required.”

Albright’s priorities include quizzing Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji, as well as South Korean President Kim Dae Jung in Seoul on Friday, about their separate meetings in recent weeks with reclusive North Korean strongman Kim Jong Il.

“This will be the first time Secretary Albright will be able to say to someone, ‘You met Kim Jong Il. What’s he like? What does he say? Is he thinking about the economy? Did he talk about a vision for peace on the peninsula?’ ” a senior State Department official said.

U.S. Caught Off Guard by Events at Summit

The Clinton administration was caught off guard by the dramatic pictures and promises emanating last week from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, as the two Kims hugged and held hands during an emotional three-day summit that appeared to end 55 years of official hostility between their two nations.

U.S. officials believe that China played a crucial behind-the-scenes role in setting up that summit when Kim Jong Il visited here last month. It was his first publicized trip in at least 17 years.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry announced the continued missile-test moratorium in a statement released just before Albright left Washington early Wednesday morning. The statement also said the formal lifting of U.S. sanctions on trade and investment with the Communist state this week “will have a positive effect” on the long-stalled missile talks.

The Clinton administration considers North Korea the world’s worst nation for the proliferation of ballistic missiles and missile technology, citing Pyongyang’s exports to Iran, Pakistan and other nations.

North Korea last tested a long-range missile in August 1998, firing one over Japanese airspace in an unsuccessful attempt to launch a satellite. Pyongyang agreed to suspend further testing last September after the White House announced its plan to ease sanctions. The latest statement from North Korea tied the continued moratorium to the formal lifting of sanctions in Washington.

U.S. analysts are studying other sections of the statement that appeared to offer hope for further progress. They particularly sought to decipher an offer to “move in good faith and work to clear the U.S. of its worries.”

Despite the moratorium, U.S. officials say that North Korean engineers continue to work on developing long-range missiles and that technicians continue to work at the impoverished country’s only known missile launch facility.

Unclassified estimates by the U.S. intelligence community, which indicate that North Korea may be able to launch a nuclear-tipped missile toward U.S. soil by 2005, have largely driven the debate in Washington over whether to build a $60-billion missile defense system.

China, Russia and many U.S. allies in Europe view the proposed defense system as a destabilizing measure and have warned that it will lead to a renewed arms race. A State Department official said Albright expects Chinese leaders to grill her on the need for an antimissile shield “if peace is breaking out on the Korean peninsula.”

In response, the official said that North Korea could end its testing moratorium on short notice and that Washington is also concerned about accidental launches and potential threats from other nations or terrorist groups.

Official Defends Albright’s Trip

Before leaving Washington, the senior State Department official took a surprisingly defensive tone when discussing Albright’s visit.

“Now there have been suggestions that there’s some sense of urgency or emergency about these consultations and that we’re rushing off in the wake of the [Korean] summit to somehow assess what is the U.S. role,” he said. “I want to assure you that really nothing could be further from reality.”

Albright’s trip is her first to Beijing since U.S. warplanes bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade 13 months ago during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization air war to force Yugoslav troops out of the province of Kosovo.

Relations between Washington and Beijing plummeted as a result of the bombing, which U.S. officials said was an accident. Talks between the two nations over China’s human rights record still have not resumed. But relations clearly have improved since November, when the Clinton administration sealed a deal to support China’s accession to the World Trade Organization.

The House voted to support the deal last month when it approved a bill to grant China permanent normal trade relations with the United States. The Senate is expected to approve the measure.

During her visit, Albright will seek to ease tensions across the Taiwan Strait and allay Beijing’s concerns about the election in March of Chen Shui-bian, a formerly vocal advocate of independence, as Taiwanese president. China views Taiwan as a renegade province.

Citing the Pyongyang summit, the Taiwanese president used his first news conference Tuesday to invite Jiang, his counterpart in Beijing, to “shake hands and reconcile in creating a historic moment.”