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U.S. Envoy To Travel To North Korea: Senior U.S. Official
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North Korean leader Kim Jong |
WASHINGTON, April 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A U.S. envoy is to travel to North Korea in a bid to break the stalemate on contacts between Washington and its Cold War rival since President George W. Bush entered the White House, a senior U.S. official said Monday.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it had not yet been decided exactly when the envoy, Jack Pritchard, would visit the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.
But the move will be greeted as the first sign of an easing of the crisis in North Korea-U.S. relations, which erupted when Bush took office warning that he did not trust North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
Close U.S. allies Japan and South Korea were to be informed of the proposed mission on Monday, the official said.
Bush has repeatedly voiced suspicion of the Stalinist state, and included it in his "axis of evil" along with Iran and Iraq during his State of the Union speech earlier this year, accusing Pyongyang of exporting technology used in weapons of mass destruction.
Bush has repeatedly stated that his “war on terror” would not be confined to Afghanistan and named Iraq as the next target, leaving analysts to wonder whether Iran and North Korea would follow shortly thereafter.
But the Bush Administration has stuck by its offer to talk to Pyongyang at "any time, any place," with no preconditions.
North Korea had up until now responded to the offer with furious rhetoric, warning that Washington could be planning attacks on its soil in the context of Bush's war on terrorism, even branding the president “a moral leper”.
That anger was seen by many analysts as reflective of disappointment that the Bush team had declined to follow the accelerated engagement strategy of the previous Bill Clinton administration, which came close to securing a deal to end Pyongyang's missile program.
That strategy featured an eye opening visit to Pyongyang by former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, and a visit to Washington by senior North Korean leader Jo Myong-Rok.
Bush aides want to talk to Pyongyang across a wide spectrum, including on the possibility of troop reductions on the Korean peninsular, its perceived past support for terrorism, and nuclear and missile proliferation.
They also have expressed doubt over Pyongyang's adherence to a 1994 deal known as the Agreed Framework, which halted North Korea's nuclear weapons program, in return for the manufacture of reactors, which produce little weapons grade material.
Speculation has mounted that the U.S.-North Korea freeze could be easing since South Korean envoy, Lim Dong-Won, visited North Korea earlier this month.
Leader Kim reportedly told Lim he would welcome a visit from Pritchard.
Secretary of State Colin Powell signaled that a move on the North Korea talks was likely last week, when he told a congressional committee that Washington would follow up on signs that Pyongyang's position might be easing.
"There is a little movement there," said a senior State Department official said Monday on condition of anonymity.
The standoff between the United States and North Korea is one of the few remaining unresolved conflicts of the Cold War.
In recent years, Kim mounted a tentative diplomatic emergence, which culminated in a showpiece summit in 2000 with President Kim Dae-Jung of South Korea, who won a Nobel prize for his efforts to prize North Korea out of isolation.
But many Bush aides interpret that campaign as a sign that Kim Jong-Il is determined to cement his powerbase with foreign cash rather than an indication that he is ready to embrace reform.
They believe he may try to follow China's example of reforming economically while keeping a firm grip on power.
But any long-term reduction of Korean peninsular tensions would benefit the United States, which has 37,000 troops on hair trigger alert on the South Korean side of the border.
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