Asia Times: Bill Clinton should visit North Korea


	October 18, 2000	atimes.com

Editorials

Bill Clinton should visit North Korea

By all accounts, last week's visit to Washington by Vice Marshal Cho Myong-rok, special envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, was a success and built mutual confidence even if the only tangible agreements reached were on continuation of North Korea's moratorium of ballistic missile launches and a return visit to Pyongyang by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. There apparently also was discussion of a Pyongyang visit by US President Bill Clinton near year-end though no firm plans were made.

Wendy Sherman, the senior US diplomat negotiating with North Korea, described the Albright trip as the next step in the "step-by-step" engagement process recommended by former US Defense Secretary William Perry in a policy blueprint last year. But she fell short of making an announcement on a possible Clinton trip and Republicans on the US House International Relations Committee have voiced their opposition, saying that such a venture should be left to the next US president. Why, they didn't explain.

Such a postponement would be a silly exercise in playing hard-to-get. The Cho trip has confirmed that the Korean peace process has lost none of its momentum since the June Kim-Kim summit. Meanwhile, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts on behalf of "democracy and human rights in South Korea and in East Asia in general, and for peace and reconciliation with North Korea in particular", and said he felt "sorry" that Kim Jong-il had not been included in the Nobel citation and "thankful" for the North Korean leader's efforts. What's bugging US congressional Republicans that they don't want to see Bill Clinton travel to Pyongyang and make his own personal contribution to the peace process? There'd be nothing better or more worthwhile for him to do in the waning days of his presidency and there could be no accusations that such a trip would be politically motivated: by January 2001 Clinton is out of the White House.

During her stay in Pyongyang next month, Ms Albright should carefully explore with Kim jong-il in person just exactly what his intentions are at this point, what substantive give-and-take is possible, and what Clinton and Kim might ratify by way of further rapprochement. Sources familiar with the talks of Marshal Cho with US officials say North Korea wants the US to guarantee its "territory" and "sovereignty". Those, of course, are dicey demands not easily acceded to. North Korea claims all of the Korean peninsula as its sovereign territory. The US will hardly want to guarantee Korean unification on Northern terms. But with some obvious caveats, the US could accede to a treaty arrangement similar to the German "Basic Treaty" of 1972 in which East and West Germany guaranteed respect for each others' territory pending peaceful resolution of the reunification issue. That treaty opened the way toward diplomatic relations between East Germany and Western nations who had previously refused diplomatic recognition of East Germany at West German behest. That basic treaty between the two Germanies may be worth a closer look in further US/South/North Korean negotiations.

There are concerns on the South Korean side that already agreed arrangements for family unifications and economic initiatives will take a back seat to direct US-North Korean negotiations. South Korean officials have observed that North-South talks atrophied while Pyongyang prepared for Marshal Cho's US visit. Those concerns are real and important but should not be exaggerated or stand in the way of a Clinton visit that has a reasonable chance of defining another sizeable step toward Korean peace. Kim Jong-il proved in June that he is good for some positive surprises. No reason not to give him another chance for an encore.

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