During a visit to Pyongyang next week, envoy Lim Dong-won will deliver a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il from South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, South Korean officials said (see GSN, March 25).

The letter will urge North Korea to resolve issues over nuclear weapons and missile development and to reume dialogue with the United States, the officials said.

Lim, South Korean presidential adviser on security and unification issues, “will meet North Korean leader Kim.  He will explain Seoul’s stance on inter-Korean and North Korea-U.S. issues and deliver President Kim’s letter,” a South Korean official said.

“He will emphasize that the security situation on the Korean Peninsula may face a crisis unless the outstanding matters are promptly settled,” the official said (Yonhap news agency/BBC Monitoring, March 26).

South Korean President Kim said he wants to restart negotiations that have been deadlocked for five months.

“The talks will be very broad, covering all security issues.  We hope it will break the stalemate,” said a South Korean official at the presidential Blue House.

North Korea’s agreement to accept South Korea’s request for new negotiations could illustrate a separation of inter-Korean issues from U.S.-North Korean relations, said analysts.

“North Korea has traditionally taken the same approach towards Seoul and Washington because it saw them as one and the same enemy, but it seems to have realized that one is more friendly than the other,” said a European diplomat in Seoul (Andrew Ward, Financial Times, March 26).

Low Hopes

South Korea played down expectations for an improvement in relations.

“Expectations are running high for the visit due to stalled inter-Korean relations and tension lingering on the Korean peninsula, but we have to remain composed,” said Kim spokesman Park Sun-sook.

Lim’s visit probably would only lead to a resumption of inter-Korean negotiations or family reunions, and not to a new U.S.-North Korea dialogue, said Chon Hyun-joon of the Korean Institute for National Unification.

“There will be a breakthrough in frozen inter-Korean ties, but the North’s response depends on the gift to be offered by the South,” Chon said.

Moon Chung-in, of Seoul’s Yonsei University, said there could be a security emergency on the Korean Peninsula sometime in the next year (see GSN, March 20).

“Speculation about a security emergency in 2003 is coming from several quarters, and as if to back up the theory, there are some inauspicious signs,” Moon told the South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo.  “Ever since the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, the international situation has been dramatically different.  The North’s brinkmanship tactics can be hazardous” (Agence-France Presse, March 26).

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