Security Meeting Next Occasion For North, South, U.S. Contacts

Senior officials of North and South Korea are expected to meet bilaterally during the 8th Senior Officials' Meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum, which begins Thursday in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The meeting is the first gathering which includes the two Koreas and the United States since Pyongyang pulled the plug on contacts with the South in March. The North acted after U.S. President Bush said he was "skeptical" about the communist regime.

Choi Young-jin, a deputy foreign affairs minister, James Kelly, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and Ri Yong-ho, a North Korean Foreign Ministry official, will attend the forum. Mr. Ri, 42, is said to be well-versed in disarmament issues. He participated in the 1991 Second United Nations Conference on Disarmament Issues in Kyoto.

"There are no official meetings scheduled between the United States and North Korea, or between the North and South Korean delegates. But we expect the parties to seek out each other on the sidelines to gauge each others' opinion on nuclear issues and the U.S. missile shield," a senior government official said on condition of anonymity.

Seoul officials said that they will discuss with their North Korean counterpart at the forum the United States' intention to resume dialogue with the North. They will also press for reopening the various channels of inter-Korean dialogue that were abruptly halted after the March summit between President Kim Dae-jung and Mr. Bush. Ministerial talks scheduled for March 13 and inter-Korean Red Cross talks on April 3 were canceled by Pyongyang after the Kim-Bush summit.

Foreign affairs analysts said they expect heated discussion at the forum when the United States explains its new missile shield plan to participants, including North Korea, China and Russia, that oppose the plan. The forum, under the auspices of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, brings together ASEAN nations and 13 other governments.

by Lee Young-jong