NEW YORK President Kim Dae-jung said Sept. 8 that North Korea s economic opening would not jeopardize Kim Jong-ils power.
In a dinner meeting with a group of American experts on Korea here, the president challenged the conventional theory claiming that an economic opening would lead to the risk of the leadership getting toppled.
There is a saying that many leaders of former Communist bloc countries in eastern Europe were toppled because of the opening of their economies, he said. But I do not think the allegation is applicable to North Korea and the other Asian countries, including China and Vietnam.
Europe and Asia have different cultures and even the opening would not shake or remove the leadership of the Asian communist countries, Kim said.
China and Vietnam have opened up their economies but their leaderships were not challenged, he added.
On the sidelines of the U.N. Millennium Summit, Kim invited to a dinner 17 American experts on Korean affairs. They include hawks, doves, Republicans and Democrats, former Korean ambassadors and deans of post graduate schools on international affairs.
Present at the dinner were former U.S. ambassadors to Korea James Laney, Donald Gregg and James Lilley Paul Wolfowitz of Johns Hopkins University, Edwin Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation, former White House national security advisor Anthony Lake, Robert Gallucci of Georgetown University, former Washington Post journalist Don Oberdorfer, and Korea Times columnist and professor of Georgetown University, David Steinberg.
Kim predicted that Kim Jong-il might open North Koreas economic system, modeled after China and Vietnam. I am wondering whether National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il would adopt the China- or Vietnam-style market-opening, he said.
Kim indicated that any change in the current Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) would be possible only after the current 47-year-old armistice agreement is replaced by the permanent peace treaty between the two Koreas.
He asserted the signing of the inter-Korean peace treaty must be discussed at the Four-Party Talks involving the two Koreas, the United States and China. It is desirable for Washington and Beijing to support and endorse an inter-Korean peace treaty, the president said.
Only when the peace treaty is signed, will the two Koreas be able to terminate the Cold War structure on the Korean peninsula and realize disarmament, Kim said.
Kim went on to say that he believed Kim Jong-il to be in firm control of North Korea, saying that Pyongyang has a strong interest in improving relations with the United States.
In this regard, he said, I dont think North Korea will continue to maintain an antagonistic attitude toward South Korea.
The president cited two priorities for North Korea, securing guarantee on its national security and economic recovery. North Korea has made efforts to realize these objectives, and there is no doubt that Pyongyang hopes for opening ties with the United States, he added.
Asked to dwell over Chinas reaction to Kim Jong-il s remark, that the presence of U.S. troops was necessary, the president said, I have not heard whether Beijing favors or opposes it.
Kim noted that North Koreas economic recovery is dependent upon, to a large extent, on whether Pyongyang is willing to attract foreign investment, on how much South Korean investment would be made in the North, and whether North Korea would be able to get loans from such organizations as the IBRD, IMF and Asian Development Bank.
He said North Korea is poor but it has high-quality labor force and North Koreans are talented in the information sector.
What is, however, most important (for North Koreas economic recovery) is the opening of relations between North Korea and the United States, Kim added.
Kim said that he does not anticipate any change in the U.S. policy toward North Korea in the future. The two political parties in the United States have supported my Sunshine Policy of engaging with North Korea, which gave me great moral encouragement.
Kim also drove to the fore that there was no serious bilateral friction between Korea and the United States at this stage. There is no trade dispute and no other pending issues between us, except the issue of revising the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and the Nogun-ri massacre case.
He expected the two issues to be solved amicably, in a way mutually convincing both to Koreans and Americans.