By Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, February 20, 1998; Page A01

TOKYO, Feb. 19—North Korea made a surprising offer of political dialogue to South Korea today, sending letters across the fortified border offering talks between political parties and civic groups in each country.

It marked the brightest glimmer of peace in years across the divided peninsula because it appears to be a concrete follow-up to statements by a senior North Korean official Wednesday night as well as a response to conciliatory gestures from Seoul, diplomats and analysts said.

In letters sent through Red Cross officials at the truce village of Panmunjom along the most militarized border in the world, North Korea said it seeks to thaw frozen diplomatic ties between the two nations that have been bitter adversaries for half a century.

The 70 or so letters -- addressed to president-elect Kim Dae Jung and other political and civic leaders -- seek "dialogue between the political parties and civic groups" in each country, according to South Korean officials. It was unclear exactly what sort of talks North Korea envisioned.

North Korean Workers' Party Secretary Kim Yong Sun was quoted by the official Korean Central News Agency as saying Wednesday night, "We make it clear that we are willing to have a dialogue and negotiation with anyone in South Korea, including political parties and organizations."

U.S. officials in Seoul said Kim is a top-ranking official in charge of North-South relations, so his statements are seen as the official position of the North Korean government and its reclusive leader, Kim Jong Il. Officials said such conciliatory remarks from North Korea are rare, and following up with hand-delivered letters is nearly unheard of.

North Korea's gestures come days before South Korea swears in a new president who has made improving diplomatic ties with the North a top priority. Kim Dae Jung, who assumes the presidency Feb. 25, has made a series of proposals that suggest he will be far more willing to engage the North Koreans than the hawkish outgoing president, Kim Young Sam.

Since his election in December, Kim Dae Jung has called for direct talks with North Korea, an exchange of envoys and the revocation of laws forbidding South Koreans from receiving North Korean radio and television broadcasts. Kim said he would even consider a face-to-face meeting with Kim Jong Il.

A spokesman for Kim Dae Jung said further study of the letters is needed but that the proposals for dialogue are welcome.

Taken together, the back and forth between the two Koreas suggests a significant easing of tensions on the jittery peninsula. Dialogue between the two nations was unthinkable even a year ago, when a North Korean submarine full of spies ran aground in the South, raising tensions so high that Kim Young Sam raised the possibility of "all-out war."

Since then, South Korean attention has turned largely inward, with a catastrophic economic collapse causing turmoil that has put discussion of North-South relations on the back burner. Many observers thought North Korea would try to capitalize more on the South's economic problems; instead, it has stayed noticeably quiet and shown increasing willingness to deal with Kim Dae Jung.

North Korea itself is in the midst of massive food shortage. The United Nations recently appealed for $415 million in donations for food and medical supplies, saying the need to head off disease and death from malnutrition is critical. Although many aid workers have been allowed into North Korea, parts of the country remain off-limits. Even the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency says it has limited information about the isolated country.

U.S. officials in Seoul tonight cautioned that while North Korea's moves could be "very dramatic," Kim Jong Il's long-term goals and intentions are still a mystery.

"One swallow does not always a spring make," one U.S. official said.

There are historical reasons to doubt North Korea's goodwill offering: Pyongyang is notorious for saying one thing and doing another. Also, North Korean official Kim Yong Sun said this week that the Communist country remains adamant that a true breakthrough in relations cannot occur as long as Seoul continues joint military exercises with the United States and retains its intelligence agency, and as long as "foreign forces" remain in South Korea.

There are 37,000 American troops in South Korea. Kim Dae Jung has said he believes the continued U.S. presence is vital to the country's security.

But even as North Korea's motives remain puzzling, South Korea is taking concrete steps to improve the icy relationship. Kim Dae Jung has said he wants to push for more communication between families divided by the military border, and North Korea seemed to respond positively Sunday. As many as 10 million South Koreans, about a quarter of the population, have relatives in the North.

North Korea's official state radio said the government would collect petitions from North Koreans who want to find relatives in the South, separated since the 1950-1953 Korean War. The broadcast said that North Korea would set up an "address information center" by March 1. It is unclear if these relatives would be allowed to travel to the South. But South Koreans increasingly are talking about easing divisions between the countries enough so that at least temporary family reunions are permitted.

South Korea today also granted two advertising companies permission to launch joint ventures in North Korea, a spokesman for the National Unification Ministry said. One company is to design billboards and ads to lure foreign investors to North Korea. The other will use some of the stunning mountainous landscape of North Korea in TV, radio and print ads that also would be seen in the South.

Relations between the two Koreas have been exceptionally tense during the five-year tenure of Kim Young Sam, often denounced by North Korean official media as a "dictator" and "puppet" of the "American imperialists." Even Wednesday's conciliatory state media report again took aim at the outgoing president, saying he "has made the reunification timetable exist in a vacuum for five years and driven back the fellow countrymen's march toward reunification."

A South Korean spokesman said the letters are similarly worded and were sent from North Korean civic and political party groups. The letters said that "change of the administration and the president does not automatically open the way, but the key [to cooperation] lies on changes of policy," the spokesman said.

North Korea so far barely mentions Kim Dae Jung, but the change in tone of its official broadcasts and flurry of peaceful gestures since his election are seen as no coincidence. Kim Dae Jung has reassured Pyongyang that he does not favor a reunification modeled after the West German absorption of East Germany. The monetary and social cost of a German-style absorption of its communist neighbor is seen as too steep for South Korea, which is in the throes of its worst economic crisis since the Korean War.

Rather, Kim has outlined a gradual, three-stage program that ultimately would lead to a unified Korea.