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South Korea's Kim Proposes Direct Talks With the North
By Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, December 20, 1997; Page A01
The idea of the North's communist leader meeting with Kim's predecessor was almost unthinkable. Outgoing President Kim Young Sam and North Korea's Kim Jong Il share deep personal animosities.
But today is a new day in South Korea following Kim Dae Jung's epochal victory in Thursday's presidential election. And while there is concern about what the new leadership from the ranks of the political opposition means for the nation's severe economic problems, many believe the new president, more moderate in his position and approach to the North than previous South Korean leaders, will help thaw relations with Pyongyang.
[President-elect Kim agreed Saturday to a proposal by the outgoing president that amnesty be given to two former presidents convicted last year of sedition and accepting bribes. On Monday, the former presidents, Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo, will be freed and will enjoy the normal rights of citizens, including the right to reenter politics. Chun was serving a life sentence. Roh had been sentenced to 17 years.]
At his first high-profile news conference, the president-elect said, "Through direct dialogue with the North, we shall search for a way to settle our problems between our two separated people. . . . I, therefore, propose to North Korea a resumption of the inter-Korean dialogue." He said he would like to send an envoy to meet North Korean leaders and then perhaps meet "communist party leader Kim Jong Il."
Because of the decades-old tension between the two halves of the Korean peninsula, and the 1 million soldiers along its border, the United States maintains 37,000 troops here. In an apparent effort to put to rest any worries that he will be soft on North Korea, President-elect Kim reiterated his support for a strong defense, a strong military and a strong alliance with the United States.
One of the world's most isolated countries, North Korea is viewed as a huge security risk in this region. Talking with the leader of North Korea -- a man who is thought never to have met a U.S. official -- is viewed as an important step in demystifying and understanding the world's last Stalinist state.
North Korea's official news agency, considered a barometer of the government in Pyongyang, did not comment on the election. Recently the news agency said that Kim Dae Jung and the current president should be relegated to "the trash heap of history."
Despite those harsh words, Kim Dae Jung is believed to be more willing to embrace the North, and the North is deemed less antagonistic toward him than toward previous South Korean leaders.
"It's now an ideal time to open dialogue between North and South," said Park Jai Chang, professor at Sook Myung Women's University in Seoul. "There are good reasons that a new era" may be at hand.
In addition to the election of a candidate viewed as distant from the establishment, Park said the "shifting atmosphere" caused by the economic meltdown here may also draw the two Koreas closer.
South Korea has been in an economic crisis for more than a month as its financial markets plunged, the value of its currency relative to the dollar nose-dived and it agreed reluctantly to a painful austerity program to receive a record $57 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
North Korea's economy has been rocked by droughts and floods.
"Both parts of the peninsula -- North and South -- are having difficulties," Park said, adding that that may make it easier for Pyongyang to come to the peace table.
Although there continues to be a huge disparity in the wealth and lifestyle of people in the North and South, the humiliating financial problems of South Korea may lessen the antagonism between the two countries.
The two Koreas technically have remained at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a fragile armistice agreement, and tensions have risen and fallen since then. Now, the opposition candidate's electoral victory has filled some with hope that better ties with the North may follow. A front-page headline in today's Korean Herald states, "Kim's election raises hopes of South-North summit."
Kim Dae Jung said that Seoul and Pyongyang talks, based on a 1991 inter-Korean agreement, would be "crucial to settling our problem."
The accord, which was never implemented, pledged nonaggression and greater exchanges of people and communication.
The accord also commits Seoul and Pyongyang to sign a peace treaty eventually and says they "shall respect each other's political and social system" and refrain from using force against each other.
The president-elect has said before that he will meet Kim Jong Il, and when asked about that pledge today, said any such summit would be held "after consultation with friendly nations."
Kim also said, "To strengthen our national security, we will preserve and maintain our alliance ties and close cooperation with the United States -- the central factor to our national security." He added that the continued presence of U.S. troops is essential for peace on the peninsula; North Korea has demanded that they leave.
Kim is expected to speak soon with President Clinton about the possibility of a North-South summit.
© Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company
