U.S. welcomes inter-Korean dialogue, sees thawing relations: State Dept.

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 (Yonhap) -- The United States Monday welcomed high-level
contact between the two Koreas, but said no progress has been made on the
international effort to bring the North back to the six-party talks on its
denuclearization.
"We support a dialogue between North Korea and South Korea, and we welcome
meaningful steps that lead to a reduction of tension on the Korean Peninsula,"
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in a daily news briefing. "We've seen
some helpful steps in thawing the relationship between the North and the South,
between North Korea and South Korea in a bilateral basis, in terms of opening up
some kind of dialogue."
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met with Kim Ki-nam, secretary of North
Korea's ruling Workers Party, at his office for about half an hour Sunday to
discuss "progress in inter-Korean cooperation."
Kim led a six-member North Korean delegation to the state funeral of former South
Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who held the first inter-Korean summit with North
Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000.
Kim Yang-gon, a senior official of the Workers Party who is in charge of
inter-Korean affairs, met with South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In-taek
Saturday to discuss inter-Korean rapprochement measures in the first
ministerial-level contact between the two Koreas since Lee's inauguration in
February last year.
Lee stopped food aid to and economic cooperation with North Korea in a departure
from the engagement policy sought by Kim Dae-jung and his liberal successor, Roh
Moo-hyun, saying North Korea should first take steps toward its denuclearization.
"I would not say that we've seen really any progress toward our oft-stated goal
and our clear position that we want to engage with North Korea to discuss the
denuclearization issue in the six-party context," Kelly said. "We're very firm on
that. We're willing to talk with them bilaterally, but only in this multilateral
context."
North Korea bolted from the six-party talks, involving the two Koreas, the U.S.,
China, Russia and Japan, and demanded bilateral dialogue with the United States
in response to international sanctions for its recent nuclear and missile tests.
"The six-party talks are arranged so the real regional stakeholders around North
Korea, the countries that have a real stake in the denuclearization of North
Korea, are our partners in these six-party talks," the spokesman said. "We want
to make sure that they're enfranchised in these talks."
The rare dialogue between the two Koreas is the latest of North Korea's
conciliatory gestures after months of provocations. The thaw comes amid reports
that Kim Jong-il has done enough to foster the atmosphere for power transition to
his third and youngest son, Jong-un, 26, after apparently suffering a stroke last
summer.
Lee's office has said that the North's secretary Kim, a close aid to Kim Jong-il,
fell short of requesting a summit meeting between the leaders of the two Koreas,
although they discussed a broad range of issues on reconciliation.
Kelly said he did not "have any details of the discussions that they had."
"No members of the United States delegation to the funeral of Kim Dae-jung met
with the North Koreans," he said.
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright led a 10-member U.S. delegation to
Kim Dae-jung's funeral on Sunday.
Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy, who accompanied
Albright, met with Wi Sung-lak, South Korea's point man on the North Korean
nuclear issue, to reconfirm their position that North Korea should come back to
the six-party talks on its denuclearization.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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