Powell Visit Seen Chance For New Start

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Powell Visit Seen Chance For New Start

WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell will visit Seoul on July 27 and 28 after attending a meeting in Hanoi of foreign ministers of the Association of South East Asian Nations, it was announced Saturday.

While he is in Hanoi from July 24 to 26, the State Department said, Mr. Powell may meet separately with North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun. The possibility prompted Korean analysts to suggest that a turning point may be near in the relations between the U.S. and the two Koreas.

As the leading figure in the Bush administration's diplomatic team, Mr. Powell will have the opportunity to heal old wounds between Seoul and Washington, whose outlooks and policies toward Pyongyang diverged after President George W. Bush took office last January.

Meanwhile, Seoul announced Sunday that it would propose to the North holding a second round of inter-Korean foreign ministerial talks during the same Hanoi forum. There was no response from the North when the South Korean government first suggested such a meeting at the "senior officials meeting" in May.

If Mr. Powell and Mr. Bush, who plans to visit Seoul in October, express strong support for negotiations with the North and inter-Korean talks, it could prod Pyongyang into acceding to talks with Washington and induce North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to visit Seoul, experts said.

If Mr. Powell and Mr. Paek do meet, it would be the first talks between high-ranking government officials of the two countries since the inauguration of the Bush administration. It would also shed light on the overall views held by Pyongyang on the agenda for talks recently proposed by Washington.

A similar meeting between Madeleine Albright, former U.S. secretary of state, and Mr. Paek last year had paved the way for progress in dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.



by Kim Jin

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