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.