Bosworth to visit S. Korea this week for discussions on N. Korea

SEOUL, Sept. 2 (Yonhap) -- Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. chief envoy on North Korea,
will visit South Korea later this week as part of a regional tour aimed at
discussing how to deal with Pyongyang's recent overtures, a diplomatic source
here said Wednesday.
Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy, "is scheduled to arrive
in South Korea on Sept. 4 for a three-day stay," the source said, asking not to
be named. The U.S. State Department said earlier that Bosworth will make a tour
of South Korea, China, Japan, and possibly Russia in early September but it has
yet to announce an exact schedule. The department made clear that he has no plan
to visit North Korea, however.
Bosworth will meet Seoul's top nuclear negotiator Wi Sung-lac and other senior
officials handling the North Korean nuclear issue, added the source.
South Korean government officials refused to confirm Bosworth's itinerary here
but they said his visit, if made, would be mainly intended to coordinate a
strategy on a series of good-will gestures by North Korea in recent weeks.
In early August, the North handed over two detained American television reporters
to former president Bill Clinton who traveled to Pyongyang. It also freed a South
Korean worker at the Kaesong industrial park who had been in custody for months.
A high-profile North Korean delegation, led by its leader Kim Jong-il's key aide
Kim Ki-nam, paid a courtesy call on President Lee Myung-bak when it was here to
attend the funeral of late former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung last month.
Pyongyang also eased restrictions on border crossings to and from the Kaesong
complex and normalized main communication lines with Seoul. The two Koreas agreed
to arrange the reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War in late
September.
The North is apparently seeking a bilateral dialogue with the U.S., which says
Pyongyang has to return to the six-way talks on its nuclear program beyond making
such "marginal steps."
South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In-taek also said earlier Wednesday that
North Korea's recent measures are "tactical steps," not fundamental ones.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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