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N Korea's minister jostled by media attention |
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July 29, 2000
BANGKOK (AP) - Leading his country's cautious move toward diplomatic openness, North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun learned his first lesson this week about living in the outside world - how to dodge the media. Newspeople trailed Paek from the moment he touched down in Bangkok, hounding his every public appearance at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum, Asia's largest security conference. North Korea joined the forum in the first concrete sign in years that the isolated communist country may be willing to live at peace with its neighbors. Much is speculated but little is known about North Korea, one of the world's most isolated countries. Few of the hundreds of journalists covering the forum in Bangkok wanted to miss the chance to query Paek, engaged in an unprecedented flurry of meetings on the sidelines with diplomats from Asia, Europe and the United States. "Following me and checking on me, is that all you do for the whole day?" Paek snapped at a Japanese journalist Thursday. When Paek arrived at Bangkok airport late Tuesday, scores of journalists, many with TV cameras, almost ran him over. The few North Korean Embassy officials at his side could barely clear the way for the portly, 70-year-old Paek, who looked baffled. "You will get use to this," Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan told Paek while escorting him through jostling journalists in a hotel corridor. Many journalists were curious about North Korea's reported offer to give up its long-range missile program in return for unspecified conditions. To ease the pressure, the Thai government dispatched more security guards to Paek's meetings with other foreign ministers and erected rope lines to control the crowds. Wearing a bright yellow dress no photographer could miss, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arrived Friday to meet Paek. She also wore yellow on her last public trip to Asia, calling it her "sunshine dress" in honor of South Korean President Kim Dae-jung's so-called sunshine policy to build peace with the North. The State Department press machine controlled Albright's appearances in a way Pyongyang may learn to envy - access limited to a few pre-planned "pull-asides" for pictures and a post-meeting "press stakeout." Paek was not the first North Korean official to complain about journalists. During his historic summit with South Korea's president, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il - who has rarely made a public appearance abroad - complained that Western media described him as "reclusive." Although inexperienced about the ways of a democratic press, the Stalinist state has pulled through some tough negotiations in recent years with the world's most powerful country. The United States is providing millions of dollars of fuel oil annually and building a dlrs 4.6 billion nuclear power plant in North Korea in return for its promise to freeze its nuclear program. When asked about the intense media attention on Paek, a North Korean embassy official said it was only natural. But the official - who spoke on condition he not be named - urged more discipline. "You cannot control the journalists. You cannot make them come or go as we wish, right? But we do hope that the journalists keep some order," the official said. |