Relief, mistrust at Korea talks

Wary optimism greeted North Korea’s promise Wednesday to disable key elements of its nuclear weapons program by the end of the year, amid signs of warming relations between North and South that included a strongly worded commitment of nonaggression.

The leaders of the two Koreas concluded a three-day summit with a declaration vowing to widen economic ties and begin talks on ways to reduce military tensions on the peninsula.

It followed a separate formal agreement on denuclearization among the U.S., North Korea and four other countries, announced in Beijing, that adds momentum to diplomatic efforts aimed at getting North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions in exchange for badly needed economic aid and an end to its international pariah status.

The Bush administration reaffirmed its readiness to remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism if the nation follows through on its promise to disable its reactor at Yongbyon. The move would make the North eligible for wider economic assistance and clear the way for comprehensive peace talks that could reduce tensions in the region.

“It’s the farthest we have gotten since the nuclear issue erupted 15 years ago,” said Charles Armstrong, the director of the Center for Korean Research at Columbia University. “No one said it was going to be easy, but it’s an important first step.”

The progress on the nuclear negotiations came as a wan-looking Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s mercurial leader, bade farewell today to South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun after a three-day summit in Pyongyang, the North’s capital. The leaders emerged from their first, and sometimes awkward, meeting pledging deeper Southern investment in the North and declaring they would work to end their nations’ 60-year hostility. The two also agreed to establish a “peace zone” along a disputed coastal region to avoid accidental clashes.

The Korean War was halted by an armistice, not a peace treaty.

The talks left Roh with an impression that progress remains hindered by Kim’s deep suspicions.

“North Korea still has some skepticism about the South and doesn’t trust it enough,” the South Korean president was quoted as saying at a Wednesday luncheon after his first two-hour session of talks with Kim. “We need greater effort to demolish a wall of mistrust.”

Roh said the North Korean leader was suspicious about terms such as “openness” and “reform,” suggesting that he sees any rapid move toward Chinese-style economic reforms as a threat to his autocratic rule.

Mistrust also was evident in observers’ reactions to the nuclear deal struck in Beijing. Many experts raised concerns over whether the deal would fully disable the North’s nuclear facilities, or merely leave them easy to reassemble.

And others wondered whether the United States could be sure that North Korea would disclose, and surrender, processed nuclear material that could be used to fuel a nuclear bomb. The North tested a nuclear device last October.

Wednesday’s agreement reaffirms a previous commitment by North Korea to provide details about its nuclear program by year’s end, including the number of weapons in its arsenal and the extent of its program to enrich uranium, which also can be used for nuclear bombs.

Some experts note that Washington is not sure how much fissile material has been produced at the Yongbyon plant, leaving open the possibility of accounting discrepancies.

“There is a question whether the North Koreans will make a declaration that will be fully satisfactory and whether they will allow us to make investigations and verify it,” said Gary Samore of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. “I could easily see a situation where verification of the declaration would drag on for months or years and that would hold up other parts of this agreement.”

Others raised concerns that the Bush administration was so eager for a diplomatic success that it surrendered much of its leverage over North Korea before getting significant and tangible achievements.

“What price did North Korea pay for being the first country to pull out of the Nonproliferation Treaty and test a nuclear weapon?” asked L. Gordon Flake, executive director of the Mansfield Foundation in Washington. “If we don’t get the nukes and we don’t get the fissile material, what do we have left for our future negotiations?”

The Bush administration acknowledged those complaints, while insisting that it was not settling for half-measures. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. negotiator, said Wednesday that he was optimistic about the agreement but that he was worried about the next step, which calls for North Korea’s nuclear sites to be dismantled, not simply disabled.

“I’m already thinking ahead to that,” he told reporters at the Foreign Press Center in Washington on Tuesday after returning from Beijing. “And I have to make sure the [North Koreans] understand that they’ve got to give up the fissile material and the weapons.”

Despite those concerns, there was palpable relief that diplomacy may have picked up momentum after years of stalled talks and escalating threats that culminated with the nuclear test.

“I don’t think this is a breakthrough, but it’s clear both sides want to move forward and both sides made compromises,” said Mei Renyi, director of the American Studies Center at Beijing Foreign Studies University. “This is about mutual give and take: ‘We have been keeping our promise. You need to keep your promise.’ ”

Paik Hak-soon of the Sejong Institute in Seoul said Pyongyang may be aware that its future is at stake. “North Korean leaders are not fools. . . . This deal has to do with their survival and prosperity strategy.”

The summit also seemed to suggest that Kim, 65, remains fully in control. Much of the chatter in South Korean media focused on his health, amid images of his thinning hair, mottled skin and bizarre, unsteady walk that saw him lean backward as if being hit by a heavy wind.

But his less-than-vigorous appearance was countered by the sight of Kim sitting across from the South’s five-man delegation accompanied by one aide, his chief of intelligence. And when Roh said he would have to consult with his aides before deciding whether to take up Kim’s invitation to extend the summit by a day, he was chided for his hesitation.

“Can’t the president decide?” Kim said.

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bruce.wallace@latimes.com

Times staff writers Ching-Ching Ni in Beijing, Maggie Farley at the U.N. and Jinna Park in Seoul contributed to this report.