Kim exits nuclear talks with mission Kim exits nuclear talks with mission incomplete

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's outgoing nuclear envoy Kim Sook on
Friday lamented leaving the job with the disabling of North Korea's nuclear
program and delivery of energy aid unfinished.
"I am not satisfied with what I have done," Kim said in a meeting with reporters
hours after the presidential office announced the choice of him as deputy head of
the country's intelligence agency. "Looking back on the past year, I achieved
almost nothing."
Kim added that is the reason why he was a bit reluctant to leave the post after
only 10 months of service.
The appointment of Kim as the top official handling international intelligence
was part of a routine shake-up of senior officials at the National Intelligence
Service (NIS) after Won Sei-hoon was appointed as the new agency boss last
month. The NIS has a past track record of assigning senior diplomats to the
high-profile position.
South Korea's first head of the delegation to the six-way talks on the North
Korean nuclear problem, Lee Soo-hyuck, was one of Kim's predecessors in the NIS
post.
Kim said there will be "continuity" between his new job and the old one in that
both are related to national security.
Wi Sung-lac, special assistant to Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan, is almost
certain to become Seoul's new envoy to the six-way talks, a foreign ministry
source said.
Wi, if appointed, will face a daunting task of kick-starting the six-way talks
that remain stalled for months. The last round was held last December but it
produced no deal on ways to inspect the North's nuclear facilities. The North is
still slowly disabling its nuclear plant in Yongbyon, while its dialogue partners
_ South Korea, the U.S., China, Russia, and Japan _ have yet to complete the
promised delivery of heavy oil and energy-related materials.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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