U.S. welcomes word of North-South Korean summit

April 10, 2000
Web posted at: 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT)

In this story: U.S. seeks normalized relations with North Korea Tension and troops RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States, which has 37,000 troops stationed in the southern half of the Korean peninsula, said Monday it welcomed the announcement by South Korea and North Korea that their leaders will hold a summit in June.

President Bill Clinton welcomes "the prospect of direct dialogue and a direct meeting between" South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and his northern counterpart, Kim Jong Il," said P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the National Security Council.

The meeting, scheduled for June 12 to 14 in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, would be the first between leaders of the two nations since the Korean peninsula was divided into the communist North and the U.S.-backed South in 1945.

The summit is "something we are very pleased to see," said Crowley. "We certainly hope it will bear fruit." Another White House official said it is a "major development" but added, "We'll see what comes of it."

As for what may have prompted the isolationist North Koreans to agree to take this step, White House officials credited President Kim's policy of engagement with North Korea, calling for closer economic, cultural and sporting links, while putting off the more complex issue of political reunification to the distant future.

Washington, too, has been working to improve ties with North Korea. The two countries currently do not have diplomatic relations.

The United States has offered Pyongyang normalized relations and an end to economic sanctions for assurances that North Korea does not have a nuclear weapons program and will not test, deploy, produce or export long-range missiles.

Washington also has been consulting with Pyongyang on arranging the first high-level visit to the United States by a North Korean official to reciprocate for a trip by U.S. presidential envoy William Perry last May.

"It has been an underpinning of U.S. policy and a premise of the Perry report that a South-North dialogue is central to peace and stability on the peninsula," Wendy Sherman, the coordinator of North Korean issues at the State Department, said in a statement.

Sherman said the U.S. has worked "both indirectly and directly" to support talks between the two sides.

South Korean citizens in Seoul watch television news reports on the first summit between the two rival Korean states since the division of their peninsula

Tension on the Korean peninsula escalated in August 1998 when North Korea launched a long-range missile that flew over Japan and into the Pacific.

Japan and the United States have made it clear to North Korea that it has to improve ties with Seoul if it wants better relations with them.

The United States maintains 37,000 troops in South Korea under a mutual defense treaty, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. The fighting ended with an armistice that has yet to be replaced by a permanent peace treaty.

In 1994, the late North Korean founder Kim Il-Sung and then South Korean President Kim Young-Sam were scheduled to meet in a summit brokered by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. But the meeting never came about because of the sudden death of the North Korean leader.

White House Correspondents Kelly Wallace and Major Garrett and Reuters contributed to this report.

In-Depth: Koreas' leaders agree to hold their first-ever summit

North Korea, South Korea to hold June summit
April 9, 2000
North Korean 'high-level' delegation to visit Washington
January 31, 2000

Korean Central News Agency
North Korean Government
CIA -- The World Factbook 1999 -- North Korea
North Korea: Politics & Government (University of Oregon)
Welcome to Korea (South Korean Government Site in Korean and English)
South Korea : Government (Asiaco)

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