N. Korea, U.S. in "active consultations" on detained reporters: source

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, July 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea and the United States are in "active
consultations" on how to resolve a standoff over two American journalists
detained in the secretive communist nation, an informed diplomatic source here
said Sunday.
The ongoing consultations through the North's diplomatic mission to the U.N.,
often called the "New York channel," are focused on who the U.S. government
should send as a special envoy to Pyongyang to bring back the two female
reporters, the source added.
"The U.S. has in principle reached a compromise with North Korea on the dispatch
of a special envoy for their release," the source told Yonhap News Agency,
requesting anonymity apparently due to the sensitivity of the issue. "The two
sides are continuing related consultations. You may say 70-80 percent of the
negotiations are done."
Laura Ling and Euna Lee of the San Francisco-based media group Current TV,
co-founded by former vice president Al Gore, were arrested in mid-March near the
China-North Korea border while on a reporting trip on refugees fleeing the
impoverished North.
They were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor on charges of illegal entry and
"hostile acts."
A main sticking point in efforts to free them, according to the source, is the
North's demand for the Obama administration to send a high-ranking government
official.
Washington, not wanting to link the humanitarian issue with the diplomatic
dispute over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs, prefer to send a civilian,
the source said.
After months of provocations, highlighted by its second nuclear test on May 25,
North Korea is beginning to hint at a desire for talks with the U.S.
"We are not against dialogue. We are not against any negotiation on issues of
common concern," North Korean ambassador to the United Nations Sin Son-ho was
quoted as saying by foreign news media over the weekend. Sin's comments, though
reaffirming Pyongyang's resistance to multilateral disarmament talks, came on the
heels of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) held last week in Thailand, in which U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Pyongyang to choose between dialogue and
continued sanctions.
Ri Hung-sik, head of the North Korean foreign ministry's international
organization bureau, also refrained from flatly rejecting talks with the U.S. in
a brief meeting with Yonhap at the ARF. "Let's wait and see," he responded when
asked if the North's delegation was willing to meet with the U.S. side. Such
flexibility was in stark contrast with Clinton's remarks to reporters that she
would not meet bilaterally with the North Korean delegation led by Amb. Pak
Kun-gwang, a vice foreign minister-level official.
Clinton expressed hope, even though she did not meet with the North Koreans
during the regional forum, that Pyongyang will release the detained journalists.
"I am very hopeful" of their release, she said in a media interview last week.
"The young women themselves have, apparently, admitted that they probably did
trespass so they are deeply regretful and we are very sorry it's happened," she
said. "I actually feel as though our message is getting through to North Korea."
lcd@yna.co.kr
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