Tracking Number: 432591
Title: "Four-Party Korean Peace Talks Proposed." President Clinton and South Korean President Kim Young-Sam have invited China and North Korea to participate in negotiations
toward a peace treaty to replace the 1953 armistice agreement. (960416)
Author: SULLIVAN, ALEXANDER M (USIA STAFF WRITER)
Date: 19960416
Text:
*AEF204
04/16/96 FOUR-PARTY KOREAN PEACE TALKS PROPOSED (Clinton, Kim Young Sam invite China, North Korea) (910) By Al Sullivan White House Correspondent
WASHINGTON -- The new proposal for four-party Korean peace talks is the product of a "constellation of factors," including North Korea's desperate economic straits, a senior White House official says.
President Clinton and South Korean President Kim Young Sam jointly announced April 16 the open-ended invitation to China and North Korea for negotiations on a peace treaty to replace the 1953 armistice agreement. Clinton and Kim met at Cheju Island at the start of the president's weeklong mission to Asia and Russia.
"North Korea has said it wants peace," Clinton told a joint news conference on the island resort. "This is our proposal to achieve it and we hope and expect Pyongyang will take it seriously." The White House made available a transcript of the news conference.
According to senior administration officials, the peace proposal was developed during two months of intensive consultations between Washington and Seoul. The four parties involved are signatories of the armistice agreement ending the Korean War.
The Korean Peninsula continues to be a potential flashpoint in U.S. diplomacy, with almost 40,000 U.S. ground troops massed near the De-Militarized Zone to deter any new outbreak of warfare like the horrendous battles in the Korean War. That fighting pitted North Korean and Chinese troops against a United Nations coalition force that included troops from the United States, South Korea and a galaxy of U.N. states such as Turkey, Australia and Great Britain.
Until recently the volatility of conditions on the peninsula was exacerbated by Pyongyang's drive to develop its nuclear capability; the North said it wanted to produce only electricity, but the United States and the South noted the reactors could as easily produce fissile material for use in nuclear weapons.
That particular fount of tension was curbed by adoption of the framework agreement under which Washington and Seoul, with the help of other nations, will provide light water nuclear reactors less susceptible to weapons use in return for freezing and eventually dismantling the present reactors.
Earlier this month, North Korea underscored its unhappiness with the armistice agreement by staging three military provocations in the DMZ, an occurrence which lent intensity to the consultations between Washington and Seoul.
White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry told reporters the incursions "underscore the fragile nature" of the armistice, which in turn explains why Washington for years has made it "a central tenet of our foreign policy" to encourage a North-South dialogue that would bring about a permanent peace agreement.
Clinton said the companion principle of U.S. policy is unchanged. Despite the North's repeated insistence on a separate treaty between Washington and Pyongyang, Clinton said, "We have made it abundantly clear there will be no separate agreement."
Explaining the timing of the Washington-Seoul proposal, the White House official noted "there is a constellation of factors coming together on the Korean Peninsula now that lead us and others to believe that the time is ripe."
The official cited reports of widespread famine in North Korea and "the deteriorating economic conditions" there. Beyond that, he noted, there is speculation that a leadership crisis following the death of Kim Il-song has not yet been resolved. There is uncertainty whether the North is run by its military, for example, or Kim's son, Kim Jong-il. "There's a large portion of analysis that suggest that the military is in control," the official said.
The official added there are "probably twice as many opinions about what is happening" in North Korea as there were listeners to his remarks. Given the "opaque" nature of North Korea's society, he said, there has been no indication from Pyongyang about accepting the invitation.
But in Beijing, the official said, the Chinese government has been "very understanding" of the proposal. "The Chinese have said that they share the desire to achieve a permanent and stable peace on the Korean Peninsula," the official asserted.
Asked if Chinese apprehension about deterioration in North Korea made Beijing receptive to the invitation, the official replied, "I think that's probably a consideration." He said Washington and Seoul chose to include Beijing in the invitation not only because of its role in the armistice, but because "if you're going to have anything that lasts, that reaches the point of stability and permanence, you really have to include the key players and China is the great emerging force" in Asia for the coming decade.
There is a possibility, the official suggested, that the benefits of peace could actually precede negotiations if pre-agreement confidence building measures were to be put into place. In the military area, he suggested, that could involve "moving troops back from positions of confrontation" as has happened in other parts of the world.
Over time, the official added, successful military pull-backs could be followed by "discussions on economic kinds of issues."
The official acknowledged that the Washington-Seoul proposal needs to be fleshed out with more concrete suggestions on how, when and where the negotiations would occur. The final determination on how the agreement would be implemented, and by which parties, would be settled at the bargaining table, he said.
The official said Japanese officials were briefed on the proposal and offered support. Tokyo, Clinton's destination after Cheju Island, plays a key role in the nuclear framework agreement with North Korea.
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File Identification: 04/16/96, TXT201; 04/16/96, AEF204; 04/16/96, EUR206; 04/16/96, LEF205; 04/16/96, NEA209; 04/18/96, ERF401
Product Name: Wireless File
Product Code: WF
Languages: Russian
Keywords: KOREA (NORTH)-KOREA (SOUTH) RELATIONS; PEACE TALKS; NEGOTIATIONS; CLINTON, BILL/Foreign Relations: East Asia & Pacific; KIM YONG-SAM; INTERGOVERNMENTAL COOPERATION
Thematic
Codes: 1EA
Target Areas: AF; EU; AR; NE
PDQ Text Link: 432591
USIA Notes: *96041601.TXT CO:WHITE HOUSE/KOREA/PEACE TALKS PROPOSED,RF,hrsp
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