Seoul Sets Three Conditions For Hwang Visit to the U.S.

The subtle diplomatic tension between Seoul and Washington over a proposed U.S. visit by a former North Korean Workers' Party secretary, Hwang Jang-yop, tautened Friday, as United States government officials turned up the pressure.

Richard Boucher, U.S. State Department spokesman, said on Thursday in Washington that the department had agreed with Republican legislators to lend support in providing security to Mr. Hwang.

South Korea had made a government guarantee of security, not just the personal assurances of the legislators who invited Mr. Hwang, an obstacle to approving the visit.

One of those legislators, Christopher Cox, R-California, revved up the rhetoric by questioning South Korean fidelity to human rights. "Freedom of travel is a basic human right," he said.

Mr. Hwang defected in early 1997 via China and the Philippines to South Korea with his secretary, Kim Duk-hong. He had been an architect of the North's ruling ideology of juche (self-reliance) and a teacher of the current North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il.

In his briefing, Mr. Boucher said that the U.S. government was talking with the South Korean government to "clarify what their position is."

The Seoul government's reservations about Mr. Hwang's trip relate to how his testimony at U.S. congressional hearings would affect inter-Korean reconciliation efforts. He has been critical of South Korea's "sunshine policy" of engagement with the North. The two Koreas are about to resume their dialogue after a lull of nearly five months while the Bush administration reviewed its policy options on North Korea.

The government also fears that Mr. Hwang's testimony could damage bilateral relations between North Korea and the United States. In the acceptance letter he wrote to the three Republicans, Mr. Hwang said he wanted to make a speech titled "The Truth Concerning North Korea."

At Friday's National Security Council meeting in Seoul, the government decided that Mr. Hwang's visit would move forward upon an official U.S. request, subject to three guidelines: the principle of reciprocity in exchange of access to North Korean defectors; further scrutiny of the intent behind the Republican legislators' invitation, and resolution of the issue of Mr. Hwang's security.

Participants at the council meeting pointed out that the U.S. government has not granted South Korea access to North Korean defectors in two high-profile cases, sources said.

"We will discuss Mr. Hwang's visit should the American government officially request it," a South Korean official said. "However, it is our position that an immediate trip, taking place in July, is impossible."

Although a South Korean citizen, Mr. Hwang remains under top government surveillance and is kept out of the public eye.

by Kim Jin