Seoul Shares EU Impressions of Kim Jong-il

"He is a straightforward person who is very easy to talk with."

EU Council President Goran Persson, who visited Pyongyang last week, reportedly gave this evaluation of Kim Jong-il, the North Korean ruler. A senior Blue House official gave the account of Mr. Persson's impression of Kim Jong-il as a sidebar to last week's visit by a EU team to Pyongyang and Seoul.

According to the official, Mr. Persson told President Kim Dae-jung that Chairman Kim answered his questions without reference to briefing material. The Blue House official said President Kim agreed with Mr. Persson's evaluation, saying, "You understood him well. I thought so, too."

Mr. Persson, however, said that Chairman Kim expressed no definite ideas on the direction of North Korea's economic reform policies. Mr. Kim reportedly asked for advice on such policies and agreed to exchange economic delegations with the EU.

The official quoted Mr. Persson as saying the North's leader is worried about U.S. influence on Seoul, especially after President Kim's visit to Washington in March. Kim Jong-il believes it will be difficult, Mr. Persson said, to conduct a second North-South summit in Seoul because of that influence. He also reportedly was worried about the direction of U.S. policy toward North Korea and its designation of Pyongyang as a state which sponsors terrorism.

Seoul has taken pains since last year's North-South summit to paint the Northern leader as able and informed.

by Kim Jin-kook