You Say Okjeryok, I Say Deterrent

It was apparent to me that Vice Marshal Jo was doing this because he was carrying a message from the supreme commander of the Korean People's Army to the commander-in-chief of the United States. The message was simple: Since the major issue at the time was North Korea's missile program, which he characterized as a military issue, the top military commanders from both countries should get together to resolve it. The vice marshal tried to assure Clinton that North Korea's "dear leader" would never let the American president return empty-handed from a visit to Pyongyang. Clinton, however, never went.

In contrast to the American media description of North Korea as a "Stalinist Communist state," I have come to see it as a Confucian nationalist monarchy, based on traditional Korean values and reflecting the bitterness born of foreign invasions throughout Korean history. In Confucian society, loyalty to the ruler and respect for elders are basic tenets. The iconic stature of the late "great leader" Kim Il Sung isn't that different from the Confucian image of a divine ruler.

Because of these tenets, it was more important than most Americans realized for Clinton to issue a statement of "sympathy for the North Korean people" when Kim Il Sung died in 1994 in the middle of U.S.-North Korean negotiations in Geneva over the nuclear issue. The U.S. delegation in Geneva had debated what to say, and I told the members that on such occasions Koreans traditionally say simply, "I am at a loss for words." Later that day, the chief American delegate visited the North Korean mission and wrote in its condolence book, "Words cannot express the feeling of sympathy I have for the Korean people." After a mourning period, the attitude of the North Korean negotiators was conspicuously more positive. This was something the Americans did not expect. And when Vice Marshal Jo visited Clinton, he also conveyed North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's gratitude to the American president for issuing a statement of condolence on the death of his father six years earlier.

When Madeleine K. Albright became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Pyongyang less than two weeks after Jo's visit to the White House, she made a brief, quiet visit to the elder Kim's mausoleum. Later that day, Kim Jong Il profusely thanked the secretary for that controversial gesture -- which she defended in her memoir as "a diplomatic necessity" -- and for Clinton's message of sympathy. From the tone of his voice, he seemed genuinely touched. And he spent more than 10 hours with Albright, while ignoring a Chinese defense ministry delegation during our two-night stay. Recently the younger Kim said that denuclearization of the Korean peninsula was the last wish of his father; I think he really believes that carrying out his father's will is his filial duty in the Korean tradition.

When diplomats run into serious disagreements, they often agree to use ambiguity to disguise their differences. For example, the text of the 1994 Agreed Framework stated in part: "The DPRK will engage in North/South dialogue, as this Agreed Framework will help create an atmosphere that promotes such dialogue." The meaning depended on the interpretation of the word "as." Caught between the South Koreans' demand that the agreement should oblige the North to immediately engage the South, and the North Koreans' refusal to talk to the South, the Americans sidestepped the issue and let the two Koreas interpret the word differently. To the South Koreans, "as" meant "because," whereas the North Koreans translated it into "when." I see a number of similar ambiguities in the latest accord.

As a rule, the North Koreans argue that in the absence of mutual trust, neither nation should act first. Their insistence on simultaneous actions provides a useful tool for meeting halfway in each step toward resolving the nuclear issue. If practiced well, it could also serve as an effective confidence building measure.

If there were something the North Koreans could choose to resolve first, it would be achieving a normal, friendly relationship of trust with the United States. After that, they believe, there will be no security threat to their regime. In Pyongyang's view, normalization would make it possible to conclude a peace treaty with the United States. If there were something the Americans could choose to resolve first, it would be nuclear dismantlement. So in all agreements, the sequence of measures is an issue. Judging by its language, this deal will be no different.

For the isolated North Koreans, the more they learn about America, the easier it becomes for them to talk in the American way. At the same time, if U.S. officials learn more about North Korea, it will become easier to find a common vocabulary and language that means the same thing to both sides.

Author's e-mail: tong.kim@prodigy.net

Tong Kim recently retired from the State Department, where he was the senior Korean interpreter for high-level meetings involving U.S. officials. He has joined Korea University in Seoul as a research professor.