'Low-key' visit to discuss arms is set for Kelly in Pyeongyang

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President George W. Bush will send Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly to North Korea next week to discuss a "range of issues of long-standing concern to the United States and the international community," the White House said in a statement Thursday.

Mr. Kelly will be in Pyeongyang Thursday through Saturday with an interagency delegation. There was no confirmation of whether the envoy will meet with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during the visit or pass on a letter from Mr. Bush.

Despite Mr. Bush's repeated declaration that the United States was willing to reopen dialogue with North Korea, talks have stalled since the Clinton administration. A visit by a U.S. envoy to Pyeongyang had been planned for July, 10 but was called off after the June clash in the Yellow Sea.

A State Department official said the delegation would include the U.S. State Department envoy for North Korea, Jack Pritchard, and officials with the Defense Department and the National Security Council. Mr. Pritchard is believed to be the U.S. representative who led background talks with a North Korean official in New York this week.

A Seoul official said Friday that the delegation would stop in Seoul and Tokyo before or after the Pyeongyang visit to discuss North Korean issues. The agenda for the U.S. officials' Pyeongyang talks will include North Korea's nuclear capacity and ballistic missiles, the Seoul official said, and a wide range of issues including human rights issues.

The Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade expressed hope that the talks would lead to reducing tension on the Korean peninsula.

Sources in Washington said the visit would not repeat the high-profile fanfare that surrounded the former secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, when she went to Pyeongyang in October 2000. No proposal was made for an accompanying press corps, an official said. A diplomat in Washington said the Bush administration was not necessarily pressing to meet with Mr. Kim. The visit will be more about finding out the North's position on weapons of mass destruction, he said.

In Seoul, North Korea observers are speculating that Mr. Kelly's counterpart is likely to be the first vice foreign minister, Kang Sok-ju. He is generally seen as the key figure in the North's diplomacy with the United States. He was with Kim Jong-il last week in a meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. "If Kang Sok-ju meets with Assistant Secretary Kelly," a Seoul official said, "it will be safe to assume that Pyeongyang is committed to improving ties with Washington."

by Kim Jin, Oh Young-hwan