Pyongyang postpones inter-Korean talks with regret
Pyongyang postpones inter-Korean talks with regret
By C.W. Lim
SEOUL (AFP): North Korea opened contact with South Korea and the United States yesterday, in the most concrete signs yet that Pyongyang would pursue the break with world isolation launched by the late president Kim Il-sung.
In the first inter-Korean contact since Kim Il-sung's death last Friday, North Korea notified South Korea Monday that it had to postpone the historic July 25-27 inter-Korean summit, southern officials said.
The message was conveyed "with regret" through liaison contact at the border truce village of Panmunjom to South Korean Prime Minister Lee Young-duk from Kim Yong-sun, the North's chief negotiator for the summit, they said.
The brief message said: "As it was known already through our important announcement, I am entrusted to inform you that the scheduled North-South high-level talks needs must be postponed because of misfortune on our side."
The letter virtually killed chances for the two Koreas to hold the first-ever summit since their division in 1945 at an early date, but South Korean Prime Minister Lee told parliament that the earlier agreement for the summit holds good.
"The summit is still valid. Despite the death of North Korean President Kim Il-sung, South Korea's position is to further North-South relations peacefully through dialogue, and we will remain consistent," Lee said.
The inter-Korean contact yesterday followed what was seen here as an even more encouraging development in Geneva Sunday, when Pyongyang said it intended to resume talks with Washington after the July 17 funeral of Kim Il-sung.
US officials, speaking on the plane flying US President Bill Clinton from Naples to Bonn, said the North's decision had been relayed to U.S. delegates in Geneva who had been asked to remain in Geneva.
Washington and Pyongyang, in an agreement brokered by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, opened fresh discussions last week to break the impasse over North Korea's nuclear program. The talks were suspended after Kim Il-sung's sudden death last Friday at the age of 82.
Robert Gallucci, the U.S. pointman in negotiations with Pyongyang, met for two hours in Geneva early Sunday with his North Korean counterpart, Kang Sok-Ju. He said: "We concluded with the plans that we would resume the talks in the coming week."
Gallucci also said he expected North Korean concessions that paved the way for the talks -- a freeze on its nuclear program and a commitment not to refuel a controversial nuclear reactor -- would remain in place.
In Seoul, South Korean officials said they would go ahead with preparations for an inter-Korean summit if North Korea responds favorably under its new leadership.
"The principle that South and North Korea have agreed on summit talks is still valid," the prime minister said.
South Korean intelligence reports on Sunday reported that the ruling Workers' Party's central committee and the national people's assembly, the two main decision-making bodies, had been convened for Monday, and said the two were likely to make an official announcement on succession.
On Monday, South Korean Unification Minister Lee Hong-koo said Kim Il-sung's son and designated successor, Kim Jong-il, 52, appeared to have secured control "very quickly" after the death of his father.
He predicted that North Korea may make a significant announcement soon either on its policy or leadership change.
"We are keeping a close watch if North Korea will change its policy in the course of power transition, although I don't think there would be any big change in their policy," he told parliament.
He urged North Korea to "come out and improve relations with us."
Meanwhile, reports said North Korea planned to invite Carter to the July 17 funeral as the only foreign guest, in an apparent move to again use the former U.S. president as intermediary.
The South Korean national agency Yonhap quoted, without further explanation, a North Korean source in Hong Kong as saying the invitation would be made "in an effort to ease the international atmosphere following Kim's death."
Radio Pyongyang had earlier said no foreign dignitaries would be invited to the funeral.
Officials here could not immediately confirm the report, but Carter, in a trip to the north Korean capital of Pyongyang last month, brokered the South-North Korean summit and the nuclear freeze.