US Envoy to Visit DPRK Early Next Month: White House

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, September 27, 2002

US Envoy to Visit DPRK Early Next Month: White House

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US President George W. Bush will send an envoy to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea DPRK early next month to resume talks between the two countries which have been suspended since the Bush administration assumed office in early 2000, the White House announced Thursday.

"The President has asked Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs James Kelly and an interagency delegation to travel to Pyongyang on October 3-5," the White House said in a statement.

"Consistent with the President's stated willingness to explore comprehensive dialogue with North Korea (DPRK) and based on close coordination with South Korea and Japan, Assistant Secretary Kellywill explain US policy and seek progress on a range of issues of long-standing concern to the United States and the International community," the statement added.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Kelly will first stop in Seoul and Tokyo before going to Pyongyang.

He said the US delegation will have "wide-ranging discussions" with the DPRK on "a series of issues including missile production, proliferation, weapons of mass destruction, conventional weapons, human rights and humanitarian issues."

The official said the US wants to pursue these issue in "a comprehensive dialogue."

In a phone call to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung on Wednesday, Bush informed his South Korean counterpart of the US decision to send an envoy to Pyongyang in the near future.

"The two leaders agreed that real progress with the North (DPRK) 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," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters on Wednesday.

The former Clinton administration adopted a policy of engagement with the DPRK and talks between the two sides, which focused on the missile issue, were so promising that former President Bill Clinton once planned to visit Pyongyang personally.

The Bush administration, however, not only suspended the contacts but later labeled the DPRK as part of the so-called "axis of evil."

But since April this year, both sides increased low-level contacts in New York in a bid to resume suspended high-level talks.

Secretary of State Colin Powell and his DPRK counterpart Paek Nam-sun met briefly in July during a regional security forum held in Brunei and both sides agreed to resume high-level dialogues at an earlier date.

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