Mega embarks on historic Korean visit
Susanto Pudjomartono, The Jakarta Post, Fuzhou, China
Megawati Soekarnoputri on Thursday morning embarks on possibly the most important diplomatic mission of her brief presidency as she flies to Pyongyang carrying an invitation for North Korea to again engage in peaceful dialog.
Officials in the Indonesian delegation accompanying the President on her four-nation Asian tour confirmed that Megawati had been entrusted to deliver a special message of reconciliation to encourage North Korean President Kim Jong-il to return to the negotiating table.
Indonesia's President will be relying on her acquaintance with her North Korean counterpart, first established four-decades ago, to gain a responsive ear.
Megawati herself on the last night of her five-day visit to China confirmed on Wednesday that she was carrying a message from South Korean President Kim Dae-jung to be delivered to his northern counterpart.
She refused to make public the contents of the message, and when asked also refused to comment on suggestions that Indonesia was about to become a mediator in the Korean Peninsula.
"I don't want to deal in speculation," she told a briefing with Indonesian journalists in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province.
Megawati merely asserted that the spirit of the historic 1955 Asia-Africa Conference, which her father, Sukarno, chaired and Kim Jong-il's father, Kim Il-sung, attended, was still relevant.
Separate informed sources close to the delegation revealed that the United States was also imparting a similar message through Megawati.
The source said it was "embarrassing" for Washington to go public with an offer of dialog for Pyongyang as just weeks earlier U.S. President George Bush had included North Korea as part of the "axis of evil" which had to be fought.
North Korea has been living in relative isolation, with talks of possible reunification having been bogged down for several months.
Megawati's mission at the outset may be well received given Indonesia's foreign policy standing and the two president's personal affinity.
The two first met some four decades ago when the young Kim accompanied his father to Indonesia to meet Sukarno.
Indonesian foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda on Wednesday claimed that the visit was part of a grand strategy with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to thaw tensions in the peninsula and draw Pyongyang back into the international community.
He suggested a strategy of "positive and constructive engagement" similar to that applied in the past with Myanmar, while noting that the tension in Korea was a regional destabilizing factor.
Speaking of her stay in China, Megawati said she was very happy with talks on all fronts including the prospect of greater economic and political cooperation.
Asked about Indonesia's prospects of winning a multimillion dollar contract with China for gas from the Tangguh Gas Fields in Irian Jaya, the President said she was "optimistic" without elaborating further.
On a lighter note, she also recalled how she and Chinese President Jiang Zemin ended up on the dance floor.
"He asked me if I liked to dance and sing and I also asked him the same ... He said his family were artists. That's how it came about," Megawati said.
The two presidents on Monday not only took to the floor for some six minutes, but both also ended up serenading an appreciative audience at the official banquet.
Megawati is due to stay in Pyongyang for two days before taking a hop south to Seoul before traveling on to New Delhi.