U.S. envoy resets visit to North at early date

The United States has decided to send a key envoy to North Korea, Washington and Seoul officials said Thursday. Korean government sources said the envoy would likely be Assistant U.S. Secretary of State James Kelly.

President George W. Bush spoke with President Kim Dae-jung by telephone late Wednesday and said the United States would send the envoy at an early date, the White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer, and the Blue House aide for foreign affairs, Yim Sung-joon, said.

Another high Blue House official said Thursday that Mr. Kim would meet with Mr. Bush in Mexico in late October at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. North Korea will be a key agenda item, he said, and Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi may be asked to join the meeting. The official said that Mr. Bush told Mr. Kim that Washington has a different approach to North Korea, unlike the possible military action planned against Iraq. "Mr. Bush said he wanted the Korean people to understand that," the official said.

The Pyeongyang visit, when realized, would be a resumption of talks between the North and the United States after a 20-month hiatus. "There could have been earlier progress," Mr. Fleischer said, "until North Korea attacked a South Korean vessel and sank it last summer."

Mr. Kim and Mr. Bush agreed, according to Mr. Fleischer, "that real progress with the North depends on full resolution of the security issues on the Korean Peninsula, including the North's possession and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles."

At least two meetings between Pyeongyang and Washington officials took place in New York on Monday and Tuesday, the U.S. State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said. He did not elaborate on the schedule for the Pyeongyang visit. Seoul officials said the New York meetings brought together the North Korean representative to the United Nations, Pak Kil-yon, and the U.S. State Department envoy for North Korea, Jack Pritchard.

Seoul officials said Mr. Bush's telephone call to Mr. Kim was delayed, as the Korean president was in Copenhagen for the Asia-Europe Meeting. Mr. Kim returned to Seoul Wednesday morning. Over the weekend, Mr. Bush's report on U.S. national security strategy pointed to North Korea as a "rogue state," along with Iraq.

by Kim Jin, Kim Chong-hyuk