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North Korea: Pyongyang Cancels Proposed Former U.S. Officials’ Visit North Korea Saturday called off a proposed visit by a group of former U.S. ambassadors to South Korea in a move seen as a reaction to U.S. President George W. Bush’s recent State of the Union address (see GSN, Feb. 8). In the last few months, North Korea had quietly proposed the visit by the former U.S. officials, said Robert Scalapino, a Korea expert and professor emeritus at the University of California who had been scheduled to take part. The U.S. State Department knew of the planned trip, but the group was not acting on behalf of the United States, Scalapino said. On Saturday, however, Pak Gil Yon, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations, said he had received information that the trip had been cancelled. “I’m sure it happened because of the State of the Union address,” said William Gleysteen, one of the four former U.S. ambassadors to South Korea who was to go on the trip. “They probably found it very offensive,” Gleysteen said of Bush including North Korea, along with Iran and Iraq, in an “axis of evil.” North Korea cancelled the visit because “it did not want to send a modestly positive signal right now,” said Stephen Bosworth, another former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and would-be participant (Michael Gordon, New York Times, Feb. 9). Bush’s rhetoric has also caused concern in South Korea, according to the Washington Post. According to aides, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung had hoped to use Bush’s upcoming visit to Seoul, Feb. 19-20, to persuade him to head an international effort to being North Korea back to negotiations (see GSN, Feb. 8). Now, however, Kim has lowered his expectations for Bush’s visit, said a senior South Korean Foreign Ministry official. “As long as Bush repeats his support for North-South dialogue, that will be enough,” the official said. Bush may instead wait for the South Korean elections and a new president before attempting to restart negotiations with North Korea, according to analysts. Lee Hoi-chang, leader of the opposition Grand National Party, is the leading candidate to succeed Kim as South Korean president, according to the Post. Lee is a supporter of strict reciprocity and verification measures when it comes to any agreements with North Korea, and has endorsed Bush’s “axis of evil” comments, the Post reported. South Koreans are less upset over what Bush said of North Korea and more upset over how he said it, according to Lee Chung-min, a professor of international relations at Yonsei University in Seoul. “A big part of this is about the South Korean government losing face,” Lee said. “There’s a general recognition that the sunshine policy has been less successful than everyone hoped. But the feeling is, why do you have to embarrass us by calling attention to it so publicly?” Bush’s comments, which included calling the North Korean government “evil,” have “poured ice water on a dying fire,” said Kim Chung-kyun, a research fellow at Hyundai Economic Research Institute. “This summit in Seoul is going to be a strange one,” said Kim Young-hie, a columnist for the Joon-ang Ilbo newspaper in Seoul. “President Bush is going to be wagging his finger at President Kim and warning of an axis of evil,” while the two leaders “shake hands in mutual support of the sunshine policy” (Clay Chandler, Washington Post, Feb. 10). South Korea is expected to attempt to convince North Korea to reduce its suspected weapons of mass destruction and re-enter WMD negotiations with the United States during inter-Korean meetings, a high-level South Korean official said yesterday. “The government will bring up the WMD issue at future inter-Korean talks, whether they are a ministerial or defense ministerial level,” the official said. South Korea would urge North Korea to resolve the WMD issue directly with the United States, the official said. “The issue of developing nuclear weapons and missiles by the North is basically a topic with the U.S., while inter-Korean talks concern easing of military tension on the Korean peninsula,” he said (Yonhap/BBC Monitoring, Feb. 10).
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