Text Fwd: Bosworth arrives in Seoul en route to Pyongyang

Yonhap News
Bosworth arrives in Seoul en route to Pyongyang
2009/12/06
By Lee Chi-dong

SEOUL, Dec. 6 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Barack Obama's North Korea envoy arrived in South Korea Sunday on his way to Pyongyang for what would be the first bilateral dialogue between the two sides under the Obama administration.

Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy, is scheduled to fly into Pyongyang on Tuesday for a three-day high-stakes trip during which he is expected to meet the reclusive communist nation's Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju. It is uncertain whether Bosworth will meet the North's leader Kim Jong-il or tour its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon, about 100 kilometers north of the capital.

Bosworth and four other U.S. officials including Sung Kim, special envoy for the six-party talks, who arrived at Incheon airport at 4 a.m., will meet with Wi Sung-lack, South Korea's chief nuclear envoy, to coordinate their North Korea policy ahead of the three-day trip to Pyongyang, officials from the foreign ministry said.

The delegation will travel to Pyongyang by air from a U.S. air base in Osan and come back on Thursday. They will then visit Beijing, Tokyo and Moscow to brief the countries' respective governments on the results of the U.S.-North Korea meeting.

The U.S. has said the purpose of Bosworth's trip is to persuade North Korea to come back to the six-way nuclear talks, not to have any substantial negotiations. Prospects are mixed over the outcome of the first trip by a high-powered U.S. envoy to North Korea since Christopher Hill visited there in October 2008 as Washington's top nuclear envoy.

South Korean officials cautioned media against excessive expectations.

"There are no confirmed signals yet that North Korea will return to the six-party talks," a senior foreign ministry official told reporters. He did say he would bet on the possibility that Bosworth will not meet the North Korean leader during the visit.

The official added the U.S. is intent on not engaging in any nuclear negotiations with North Korea outside of the six-way talks also involving South Korea, China, Russia, and Japan, and that the North's attitude is a key to the success of Bosworth's trip.

Diplomatic watchers here, however, say Bosworth will not come back empty-handed as North Korea and the U.S. held a number of preparatory consultations through the North's mission to the U.N. in New York. In late October, Ri Gun, the director of U.S. affairs at the North Korean Foreign Ministry, and Sung Kim, U.S. special envoy for the six-party talks, also met in New York to discuss the agenda for the forthcoming high-level dialogue.

For the U.S., the ideal scenario is that North Korea agrees to unconditionally rejoin the six-way talks that have been stalled for a year. U.S. officials say Bosworth's trip to Pyongyang, to be made at the invitation of the North Korean regime, is in itself a face-saving gift for the country.

North Korea is expected to seek more concrete discussions over what incentives it could gain by returning to the multilateral forum.

The North has stated that it would decide whether to come back to the six-way talks in accordance with the result of its bilateral contact with the U.S.

Another top South Korean official said, "The U.S. wants to have one-time bilateral talks, while North Korea will try to have additional rounds before the resumption of the six-party talks."

Nam Sung-wook, director of the Institute for National Security Strategy, said North Korea and the U.S. will likely have another high-level meeting in January and February.

If Bosworth's trip bears no fruit and no minimum deal for such an additional dialogue is agreed, he added, tensions will again run high amid the U.N. resolutions against Pyongyang, which may take provocative acts including a third nuclear experiment.

lcd@yna.co.kr
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