NK Leader Wants Washington to Play Balancer Role in Northeast Asia: Experts


By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter



Tong Kim, left, former senior Korean interpreter at the U.S. State Department and now a research professor at Korea University in Seoul, speaks at a forum organized by Kyungnam University’s Graduate School of North Korean Studies at Westin Chosun Hotel in central Seoul, Monday. On his right are Park Jae-kyu, former unification minister and currently president of Kyungnam University, and Sun Joun-yung, former ambassador to the United Nations. Sun is a professor at the graduate school. / Yonhap


As the gridlock continues over the resumption of the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear programs, experts in Seoul appear worried over U.S. policy toward North Korea.
Jeong Se-hyun, who served as South Korea’s unification minister from 2002 to 2004, said it might be wrong to expect an early resumption of the nuclear talks, considering the recent harsh remarks made by U.S. administration officials toward North Korea.

``Such wars of words have typically caused a delay in the talks,’’ Jeong said during a forum hosted by Kyungnam University’s Graduate School of North Korean Studies in a Seoul hotel Monday. ``We cannot but question whether the United States has a `real intention’ that is quite different from its `proclaimed policy’ of resolving the North Korean nuclear issue.’’

Jeong added that if the incumbent U.S. government maintains a hard-line stance on North Korea, further progress in the nuclear talks cannot be expected at least until the U.S. elections for the House of Representatives and Senate scheduled for November.

``Washington seems to want to keep North Korea as its `necessary enemy’ to maintain its control and interests in the Northeast Asian region,’’ Jeong said.

Sun Joun-yung, former South Korean ambassador to the United Nations, voiced a similar view, by saying that the United States deals with the nuclear issue within the framework of its global strategy. Under the scheme, core interests lie in how to maintain Pax Americana, he added.

During the forum, Tong Kim, former senior Korean interpreter at the U.S. State Department, said that considering the U.S. presidential system U.S. administration officials under President George W. Bush cannot but adopt harsh rhetoric against North Korea.

``Working-level U.S. officials who deal with North Korean issues, including Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs and chief delegate to the six-party talks, are called the `tier four,’’’ said Kim, now a research professor at Korea University.

Under the U.S. system, those working-level officials cannot but relay the message of the ``tier one,’’ or the president, just like official mouthpieces of North Korea adopt a hard-line stance toward the outside world to prove themselves to the inside leadership, including its leader Kim Jong-il, he said.

Expressing concern over the U.S. stance toward North Korea, some experts at the forum said that the North Korean regime, especially Kim Jong-il, is more than willing to improve bilateral relations with the United States.

Tong Kim, who on various occasions attended the U.S.-North Korea meetings accompanying the U.S. delegations, suggested that the North Korean leader wants to be on the side of the United States rather than that of China or Russia, both the North’s traditional allies.

``Kim Jong-il wants the United States, which has no territorial ambition in the region, to play a balancer role in Northeast Asia,’’ Tong Kim said. ``He hopes that the United States would rein in the competition for hegemony between China and Japan. Once the United States politically accepts North Korea, North Korea’s harsh anti-American rhetoric would disappear at once.’’

Hwang Won-tak, former senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs and security during the Kim Dae-jung government who was present at the inter-Korean summit in 2000, backed the argument, by describing how the North Korean leader had changed his attitude toward the U.S. forces stationed in South Korea (USFK).

North Korean official media outlets have often criticized the presence of the U.S. military in the South, which functions as a deterrent against possible invasion by North Korea, as the stumbling block in inter-Korean reconciliation.

During the summit, former President Kim Dae-jung asked the North Korean leader what he thought of the USFK, according to Hwang.

``Kim Jong-il replied that the North changed its thinking about the USFK since the end of the Cold War era,’’ Hwang recalled. ``Kim Jong-il said that the USFK is serving to maintain stability on the Korean Peninsula now, and that its role will be necessary even after the reunification of the two Koreas.’’

Hwang said that when he later asked the North Korean leader over a glass of wine if he wanted any further message to be relayed to then U.S. President Bill Clinton, he replied, ``Please report everything as you heard it. As for the USFK, what I said is the truth.’’

When he asked then why the North Korean media outlets were still demanding the withdrawal of USFK from the Korean Peninsula, the North Korean leader mysteriously replied, ``For the sake of the (North Korean) people,’’ Hwang said.

saltwall@koreatimes.co.kr