U.S. delegation heading to Moscow for talks on North Korea

August 25, 2000
Web posted at: 8:50 a.m. HKT (0050 GMT)

By CNN State Department Correspondent Andrea Koppel and CNN State Department Producer Elise Labott

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A team of U.S. State Department officials and arms control experts will travel to Moscow and Seoul next week to discuss North Korea's missile program, the State Department announced Thursday.

The delegation will be led by Ambassador Wendy Sherman, one of the State Department's key people on North Korea.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that Sherman's visit first to Russia and then to Seoul, where she will meet with South Korean and Japanese officials, will address the "full range of North Korean issues."

He added that the U.S. wants to "follow up" with Moscow on discussions between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Russian President Vladimir Putin, when Putin visited Pyongyang in July.

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A senior State Department official tells CNN the U.S. is looking for "more details" on this reported offer. He added that, "the important thing at this stage is not to negotiate with the Russians. We want to see if it has significant heft to take it seriously."

The visit is expected to center around "clarification" of claims by Putin that Kim offered to abandon North Korea's missile program in return for international aid and help with launching space satellites.

During a meeting with South Korean media executives, Kim was said to have dismissed the idea, saying he was only "joking."

"We all want to know more about it," Boucher admitted, adding that the U.S. wants to see what the Russians have learned from follow-up discussions with the North Koreans since the Putin-Kim meeting and "how they evaluate it."

Contrary to South Korean press reports following their recent trip to North Korea, the United States does not believe that Kim Jong Il was "joking" or "making light" of his reported offer to Russian President Putin to give up its missile program.

A senior State Department official explained the U.S. believes the confusion was probably due to a mis-translation. Instead of saying Kim was "joking" it should have been described as a "casual" comment.

In meetings held so far between Clinton administration officials and their Russian counterparts -- the sense is that Kim's reported offer was "serious" and "genuine," said this senior U.S. official.

But analysts question why North Korea would want to give up its missile program, which is very important to its national security and has been invested in heavily over the years, for "satellites they don't need."

"Clearly the missile program has value to the North Koreans," said Robert Manning, Director of Asian Studies with the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington, adding that North Korea sees the missiles as a deterrant against the United States, and also an important tool of "blackmail" to dictate terms of unification with the South. "Why is that important enough for them to give up something that is so important?"

Manning said that one reason for the offer could be because development of advanced missile systems are failing, and agreeing to halt further production could be "a face-saving way to stop something expensive and fruitless and not working, and get paid for it."

He also questioned Putin's motives. By reducing the nuclear threat by North Korea, the Russian president, he said, may be seeking to put a wrench in U.S. plans to build a national missile defense strategy.

"The international community has made quite clear they want to see the North Korean missile program curbed," said Boucher. "The Russians share that desire and we'll be talking to them about how to do it, as well as talking to the allies."

The idea is similar to the agreement North Korea signed with the United States, South Korea and Japan to shut down a nuclear reactor in exchange for two light water reactors.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met with North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun last month in Bangkok. While Paek told Albright "he was not authorized" to discuss Kim's reported offer to forego its missile program, US officials tell CNN, "he didn't say this (offer) is a joke either."

"At the time, he was not prepared to provide any information," Boucher said. "So certainly all of us who are concerned about the issues of missiles in North Korea...are looking for concrete action by the North Koreans, and are looking for clarification of what this means."

Missile talks between the United States and North Korea in Malaysia ended without easing U.S. concerns about North Korea's missile program. The talks also addressed Washington's concerns about North Korea's missile exports.

But during the talks, the North Koreans demanded cash payments for suspending the missile exports -- an idea rejected by Washington.

North Korea has consistently sought economic aid as a condition for further dialogue. In June , the United States announced the lifting of various sanctions against the DPRK, as well as a new food aid package, after Pyongyang announced an extension of the moratorium on missile tests which began last September.

U.S. officials point out that this existing moratorium on flight tests of long-range missiles "overlaps with the offer from Putin."But Washington has demanded North Korea halt the development and export of missiles, which U.S. officials maintain pose a security threat to the United States and its troops stationed around the world, before it formalizes diplomatic relations with North Korea.

North, South Korea take step toward reunification
July 31, 2000
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July 30, 2000

U.S. State Department
Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)
North Korea: Politics and Government
North Korea
South-North Korean Summit
UniKorea
CIA -- The World Factbook 1999 -- Korea, North

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