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North Korea I: Lawmakers Say North Korea Ready to Talk By David McGlinchey Such a resolution has proven difficult as Washington and Pyongyang have not even been able to agree on a forum for negotiations. North Korea has insisted on direct talks with the United States, and Washington has held out for a multilateral meeting with Northeast Asian nations, including China, Japan and South Korea. Describing their visit to Pyongyang, the six U.S. House members said the North Koreans greeted them warmly and seemed ready for negotiations. The three-day trip, which began May 30, was aimed at establishing contact outside the tightly controlled world of diplomatic negotiation, the lawmakers said. Through low-pressure dinners, sightseeing, and informal conversations, the House members “put a human face on America for the North Koreans,” according to Representative Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), the delegation’s leader and the vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. The group — three Republicans and three Democrats — toured Pyongyang’s computer center and visited the movie studios of idiosyncratic North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. They did not meet with Kim in person, however. Pyongyang looked like a troubled city, said Representative Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) who brought back photographs of shiny monuments near empty eight-lane boulevards. The city’s schools and its computer center were operating without lights, he said. A large amusement park sat empty and still. Nearby hills were dusty and treeless, apparently stripped bare for fuel. The city’s hotels were empty, although North Korean officials blamed that on severe acute respiratory syndrome; SARS has hampered travel throughout Asia. The legislators described North Korean officials as polite, friendly, and open to discussion, yet determined to let the lawmakers know that they do have nuclear weapons and are prepared to make more. The North Koreans were also “absolutely petrified” of a U.S. invasion, said Representative Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.). The delegation found a country that is convinced it is next on a U.S. invasion list, according to several of the trip’s participants. “They mentioned in every meeting the fact that Bush dubbed them part of the ‘axis of evil,’” Engel said. “They are very much aware of what happened to the first part of the axis of evil,” Iraq. North Korean officials are now saying publicly and privately that they need a nuclear deterrent to ward off such an attack. The congressmen were eating dinner high above Pyongyang — atop a nearly vacant sky-scraping hotel in a restaurant empty except for their party — when a top North Korean official told them that his country did indeed have nuclear weapons. During the May 31 dinner, North Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Gue Gwan “looked me in the eye,” Weldon said. “He had had a couple of drinks; he said, `We have them.’” North Korea has never publicly declared itself a nuclear state, although North Korean officials have told U.S. officials privately in the past that they possess nuclear devices. U.S. intelligence agencies have said for some time that North Korea probably has two nuclear bombs, perhaps more. But the lawmakers said the North Koreans’ recent admission might be the most candid and pointed on record. The congressmen said that Pyongyang’s message to them was clear and unambiguous. “They said, `We have nuclear weapons and we are building more,’” recalled Representative Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas). Ortiz said he is unsure if he should believe the claims, “but I wouldn’t tempt them. I wouldn’t try them just to see if they have one.” Relations between the two countries have taken a nosedive in the past two years, starting with President Bush’s disparaging comments about North Korea early in his term, followed by the axis-of-evil characterization. Then, in late 2002, U.S. intelligence revealed that North Korea was operating a new, clandestine nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang initiated a series of bellicose actions, among them renouncing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in January and then abandoning the 1994 Agreed Framework with the United States and South Korea, an accord that was supposed to freeze the North’s nuclear programs in return for economic and energy aid. Just this week, Pyongyang said it was seeking to develop nuclear weapons so that it could reduce the size of its expensive and massive conventional army. But even as Pyongyang continues to spout hostile rhetoric against the United States, North Korean officials told the lawmakers that they welcomed a new proposal, developed spontaneously by Weldon in his hotel room during a late-night bout of insomnia. Weldon said he was unable to fall asleep his first night in Pyongyang so instead he sketched out a rough plan to resolve the crisis. “I went back up to my room and I really couldn’t sleep,” Weldon said. “I had all these things running through my head. I said, there’s got to be a way. So I got up at three o’clock in the morning and I went over to a pad and I scratched out what it would take to end the conflict.” The North Koreans may have been open to the House delegation in part because Pyongyang always wants bilateral, not multilateral, talks with the United States and might have viewed the congressional visit as a version of two-way talks. But Weldon said he made it clear to his hosts that he was not in Pyongyang to negotiate. He only wanted to share his ideas. The 10-point proposal, which Weldon declined to reveal in detail, mirrors White House goals to involve key regional allies in any solution and to ensure the end of all of North Korea’s nuclear programs, he said. The proposal includes “some substantive” requirements for the North Koreans, Weldon said. The plan reportedly calls on North Korea to dismantle its nuclear facilities, reaffirm the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, sign international accords on missile proliferation, and join the Helsinki Commission on human rights as an observer. North Korea would also gain some benefits under the plan, perhaps economic aid, but those details have not been made public. On the second night of the visit, Weldon presented the plan to Vice Minister Kim. “I went through it point by point,” Weldon said. A key component of the plan is a midpoint hiatus, during which North Korea can prove its commitment to cooperation with the United States. “Five items to do right away and five items that would take place after a period of transparency and candor,” Weldon said. Kim’s reaction was surprisingly positive, according to Weldon. The plan might also appeal to U.S. officials, because it relies heavily on strict verification of North Korean compliance. Republicans have criticized the Agreed Framework often over the years for not being verifiable, and for allowing Pyongyang to secretly develop nuclear weapons. His plan, Weldon said, would require “transparency. It requires them to take some bold steps. It requires us to take some bold steps.... My goal, as a pro-defense, pro-hawk supporter of President Bush, is to find a way to test” the North Koreans. Under the plan, a more permanent solution would be put in place if both sides were satisfied with progress on the first five requirements. Weldon said he has discussed the plan twice in the past week with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, and the entire delegation briefed Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday for a little more than an hour. Powell described the congressional diplomacy as “helpful,” according to Weldon spokesman Bud DeFlavis. The plan, and Weldon’s down-home diplomacy, received good reviews from Democrats on the trip. “I have to give it to Curt Weldon; he’s a smart guy,” Ortiz said. Before the trip, some in Washington worried that experienced North Korean negotiators would outmaneuver the delegation. Ortiz dismissed that notion. The group “did a great job in Korea,” Ortiz said. “We pulled no punches.” Wilson said that, if anything, the North Koreans were warmer after Weldon pitched his new plan. Other lawmakers said that the North Koreans seemed open to future talks and perhaps future concessions. Officials told the U.S. visitors that they are welcome to return any time. “They clearly sent us signals. They clearly signaled that they would not be hard-nosed on this,” Engel said. According to some analysts, the bipartisan visit was significant simply because North Korea allowed it. “It means that lines of communication are open,” said Nicholas Eberstadt, a Korea scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Nevertheless, “you can only get a deal if both parties agree and both parties think there is something to be gotten by the shaking of hands. I don’t see the components of a deal being anywhere near in place on this.” So much suspicion and animosity exists between the two capitals that most analysts are skeptical of immediate progress. And some recent events don’t bode well. In the past couple of weeks, the United States and Japan have begun to talk about interdicting North Korean shipping to look for illegal weapons transfers and drugs-actions that Pyongyang has charged would amount to an embargo, and possibly an act of war. “Everybody has made it very clear that they do not want war,” said Dan Pinkston, a North Korea analyst with the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. “You can find some sort of deal, but there is the huge lack of trust on both sides.” The North Koreans’ willingness to negotiate might be a sign of goodwill, or it could be a desperate attempt to gain concessions for a failing country. Pyongyang typically negotiates when it is in trouble, Eberstadt said. “The game isn’t going that well for North Korea at the moment,” he said. Keeping in mind the troubled North Korean economy and the drastic energy shortage there, some Bush administration officials have been pushing for an economic embargo against Pyongyang to force the collapse of the regime. But the congressmen — equally divided between hawks and doves — warned against an embargo, saying the situation could deteriorate too easily and slip into war. The successful U.S. invasion of Iraq has left North Korea more amenable to negotiations and concessions, Weldon said. Ortiz said he has been met with skepticism when he has told friends about the warmth of the North Koreans. Nevertheless, he is already pushing for another trip to North Korea to reinforce the message of rapprochement. Fears are growing on both sides of the Pacific, he noted, and time may be a luxury that no one has. Speaking of the North Koreans, Ortiz concluded, “Time will tell whether I can really trust them or not.”
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