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North Korea to revamp image at ASEAN meeting |
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July 25, 2000
BANGKOK (AP) - Judging by the schedule of its foreign minister at a regional security forum, North Korea seemed ready Monday to revamp its image, as one of the world's most isolated, unpredictable regimes. Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun was set to have a series of back-to-back meetings with his counterparts from regional powers in Bangkok this week, a highly unusual flurry of diplomatic activity for the official, who until recently rarely met with anyone apart from the North's old communist allies. Paek will arrive Tuesday to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum, or ARF, the first international grouping that North Korea will join since it became a member of the United Nations in 1991. The North's membership at the ARF underscores the communist state's recent attempts to cultivate relations with the outside world after five decades of international isolation that drove its economy to shambles. Paek was scheduled to hold separate talks Wednesday with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jong-binn, and Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono. Paek will also meet with foreign ministers of Canada and Thailand. North Korea was in talks with China, France, Australia and New Zealand to try to arrange similar meetings Wednesday or Thursday, said officials at the North's embassy in Bangkok. But it was still unclear Monday whether Paek's most important meeting, one with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, will take place as scheduled. The uncertainty stems from Albright's mediating role in the Middle East peace talks at Camp David. Albright has canceled other engagements in the last two weeks. "We welcome North Korea into the ARF with the hope that it will serve to reinforce the progress and relevance of the ARF and its process," said Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan. Surin told reporters later that North Korea was being encouraged to hold as many bilateral meetings as possible in Bangkok, and North Korea had "responded favorably." "I do hope there will be some breakthroughs in the bilateral discussions they have," he said. ASEAN foreign ministers will get their first impression of whether North Korea is up to such a task when they pursue Paek on recent reports that Pyongyang was ready to address American concerns about its missile program. North Korea indicated it may abandon its missile program in exchange for help in putting peaceful satellites into orbit when its leader Kim Jong Il met President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang last week. But North Korean diplomats said in talks with Americans two weeks ago that they would not give up their missile program without dlrs 1 billion a year in cash, a price U.S. officials said would not be paid. North Korea shocked East Asia by test-firing a long-range missile that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean nearly two years ago. The North's missile program is a key factor in the U.S. drive to develop a missile defense system. South Korea, which had its first summit with the North last month, will urge other countries to engage North Korea when Lee meets his counterparts of the United States, Japan, China, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Thailand in Bangkok. North Korea has established diplomatic ties with Italy, Australia and the Philippines this year in what analysts see as an attempt to win badly needed economic aid to rebuild its hunger-stricken economy. The Pyongyang government is in talks with Britain, the United States and Japan to try to open talks to normalize ties. |
