N. Korea plays up dialogue in seeking denuclearization, improved ties

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout; ADDS details, background; RECASTS lead, headline)
By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Jan. 1 (Yonhap) -- North Korea ushered in 2010 on Friday by expressing
hope for an end to hostilities with the United States and affirming its readiness
for dialogue in seeking a nuclear free Korean Peninsula.
In a joint newspaper editorial scrutinized for hints into Pyongyang's policy
goals, North Korea also called on its military to unite around leader Kim Jong-il
but gave no sign as to who will succeed the 68-year-old, who apparently suffered
a stroke in 2008.
"The fundamental task for ensuring peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula
and in the rest of Asia is to put an end to the hostile relationship between the
DPRK (North Korea) and the USA," it said in the editorial, monitored in Seoul.
North Korea, which has softened its stance since the U.N. toughened sanctions on
Pyongyang after its second nuclear test in May last year, also said its goal "to
make it (the Korean Peninsula) nuclear-free through dialogue and negotiations"
remains unchanged.
"It is the consistent stand of the DPRK to establish a lasting peace system on
the Korean Peninsula," it said. The editorial, jointly issued by the North's
ruling party, army and youth military, was carried by the official Korean Central
News Agency.
The call for dialogue comes as the North inches toward the resumption of
six-nation talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear weapons programs in return for
economic and diplomatic aid.
It also comes as an American Christian missionary remains detained in the
isolated state after walking across the border from China calling on world
leaders to address human rights issues in the North.
In March last year, former U.S. President Bill Clinton flew to the North to
secure the release of two American journalists who crossed into it from China and
spent more than four months in jail.
Special U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth flew into Pyongyang last month to call on the
North to quickly return to the six-party talks that also include South Korea,
Russia, China and Japan.
The series of diplomatic activities came as gauzy details surfaced as to Kim
Jong-il's third son, believed to be in line to receive power from his father.
Analysts believe the power succession could be completed as early as this year.
The 1.2-million-strong army should hold "aloft the slogan 'Let us defend with our
very lives the leadership of revolution headed by the great Comrade Kim
Jong-il,'" the editorial said.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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