Moscow Talks Cap Kim’s Rail Trip From N. Korea

The world’s most reclusive head of state, North Korea’s Kim Jong Il, culminated a bizarre trans-Siberian train journey with a visit Saturday to the Kremlin.

Kim’s trip is part of an effort by Russia to portray North Korea as a normal country, not a “rogue” state from which the U.S. needs to protect itself with a missile defense system costing billions of dollars.

The North Korean leader and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin signed a declaration designed to tighten cooperation between their countries and “promote international security in the new century.”

Still, the most important aspect of the visit is the fact that it took place at all. Kim is believed to have left North Korea only twice since coming to power in 1994, both times to China. The trip to Russia is, in many ways, his debut on the international stage.

But if Kim’s goal is to appear more worldly, his unusual rail trek to some extent undermined it.

Reportedly afraid to fly, Kim spent nine days in a 21-car armor-plated train that trundled across Siberia under extraordinarily heavy security. Other trains were halted and platforms cleared before he passed through. He failed to make several scheduled stops, leaving dignitaries and the widow of a man who saved his father’s life standing disappointedly along various platforms.

Before Kim pulled into the Yaroslavsky station in the Russian capital late Friday, dozens of trains were canceled, stranding tens of thousands of Muscovites trying to get to their country cottages on the busiest travel day of the week.

“I have been looking forward to this day,” Kim told Putin as they greeted each other, according to the Interfax news agency.

The leaders of the former ideological allies, whose relations were strained after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, both have much to gain from stronger ties.

Kim, who succeeded his father in 1994 as his country’s totalitarian leader, wants to come out of international isolation enough to win badly needed food and energy aid. He also wants Russian support for his positions in “reconciliation” talks with South Korea, which are currently stalled.

For his part, Putin wants to portray Kim as a stable leader. Not incidentally, the Russian president would also like to be seen as a great statesman valued for his influence.

In effect, Russia needs North Korea as leverage against the United States, and North Korea needs Russia as leverage against South Korea.

“Our aim is to help North Korea drop out of the state of international semi-isolation,” said Vladimir Li, director of the Center for Asian-Pacific Studies at Russia’s official diplomatic training school. “This visit will certainly strengthen our strategic position in the region, and it will also strengthen North Korea’s position in forthcoming negotiations with the European Union and the United States.”

For many Russians, the precautions and formality surrounding Kim’s visit were a reminder of how much their country has changed.

“All this resembles semi-forgotten documentaries about how [Soviet dictator Josef] Stalin used to travel, about how security was provided back in those days,” said parliament deputy Sergei V. Ivanenko. “I believe that we should take all this with a certain sense of humor.”

Throughout, Kim’s visit has been marked by bits of Communist protocol not seen in Russia for years. He spent Friday night in the Kremlin’s guest quarters, as his father did in 1984. These days, heads of state visiting Moscow usually stay in hotels. He was driven around in Soviet-era Zil limousines instead of a now-preferred Mercedes.

On Saturday morning, Kim placed a wreath at the tomb of Soviet founder Vladimir I. Lenin in Red Square. The goose-stepping guards removed in 1993 were brought back for the occasion.

“We had to take into account the quaint mentality of North Korean representatives,” said Alexei K. Volin, deputy Cabinet chief of staff. “Their mentality is much quainter than the mentality of Soviet people not even 15, but maybe even 40 years ago. But unfortunately, we could not get away from it--this is the cost we had to pay [for the visit].”

The silver lining, Volin suggested, was that “maybe some of the older people who missed their trains, or had to change their plans for going to their dachas, had a chance to remember their youth.”

U.S. officials were watching the visit carefully. The Bush administration has sent contradictory signals to Kim since taking office, first suggesting that it wasn’t interested in talks and then reversing course. Kim has not responded to a request for new talks.

The United States is particularly worried about North Korea’s efforts to develop ballistic missiles. A year ago, when Putin visited the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, Kim offered to halt the missile program in return for assistance in developing a civilian rocket program.

That offer was in effect repeated Saturday, when Kim reiterated his pledge to put ballistic missile testing on hold until 2003.

The declaration that he and Putin signed insisted, however, that North Korea’s program is entirely peaceful and threatens no country that respects its borders. North Korea also expressed support for the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, which the United States would have to abrogate to proceed with its plans to develop a missile shield.

The United States hoped that Putin would encourage Kim to resume stalled talks with South Korea. South Korea’s president visited Pyongyang in June 2000, and Kim was supposed to pay a reciprocal visit to Seoul last month. That trip is now on hold.

As part of the effort to reduce North Korea’s “pariah” status, the Russian side insisted repeatedly that the primary interests it shares with North Korea are not military but economic.

In particular, Russia is eager to connect South Korea’s rail system to the Trans-Siberian Railroad in an effort to move some of South Korea’s exports to Europe via Russia. The plan would require not only North Korea’s permission but also a significant upgrade of the hermit nation’s rail lines. Moscow would also like permission to build oil and gas pipelines to South Korea.

North Korea desperately needs Russian help in rebuilding its crumbling industrial sector--most of which was either built by the Soviets or built according to Soviet models. Russia would like to work out a deal whereby it would repay some of its debt to South Korea with assistance to the North.

For all these reasons, said Andrei Fyodorov, political programs director at the Russian Foreign and Defense Policies Council, on the Russian side “there is a minimum of ideology and a maximum of pragmatism.”

“Kim Jong Il is a smart man despite the way he is often portrayed. I have met him personally, and I know what I am talking about,” Fyodorov said. “He realizes very well that in order to make reunification of the two Koreas possible, North Korea should become a bit stronger than it is today. Not from the military point of view but from the economic one. He and his country should make certain steps themselves and not expect everything to be done with South Korea’s money and effort.”

Today, Kim is scheduled to visit Russia’s Space Mission Control Center near Moscow. He will then depart for St. Petersburg, where he is to visit Lenin’s headquarters during the Bolshevik Revolution.

Kim is to leave for home Tuesday, traveling once again by train.