DATE=8/22/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=KOREAN DIPLOMACY / L-O
NUMBER=2-252996
BYLINE=HYUN SUNG KHANG
DATELINE=SEOUL
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: South Korea's foreign minister has gone to
Tokyo, as part of the country's diplomatic drive
against the threat of another North Korean missile
launch. The South Korean defense minister is also
preparing for talks with Chinese officials. As Hyun-
Sung Khang reports Seoul, the talks come amid signs
reclusive North Korea is prepared to negotiate its
missile program, in return for financial and
diplomatic gains.
TEXT: South Korean Foreign Affairs Minister Hong
Soon-Young is scheduled to hold meetings with his
Japanese counterpart and Japanese Prime Minister Keizo
Obuchi. They are expected to discuss a coordinated
approach to any missile launch by North Korea.
The visit is part of a concerted campaign to
discourage North Korea from any missile launch and to
work out a joint response, should it proceed. Monday,
the South Korean defense minister will visit China, in
a bid to gain Beijing's cooperation in ensuring
regional stability. China is one of the last
remaining allies of North Korea. Chinese soldiers
fought alongside North Korea during the Korean War,
against the U-S / led United Nations.
The diplomatic initiatives will climax in early
September, when South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung
meets with President Clinton and the Japanese prime
minister, at the meeting of leaders from the Asia-
Pacific region in New Zealand.
Current talks come amid signals Pyongyang may be
prepared to give up its missile program, in return for
diplomatic and economic rewards. Last week, North
Korea's official Central News Agency said the country
is was always prepared to negotiate, if hostile
nations are motivated by a desire to alleviate the
concerns of the north.
South Korea and the United States cautiously welcome
the apparent change in Pyongyang's stance. The north
had insisted on its "sovereign right" to launch a
missile. Washington calls the new stance a "window of
opportunity" for improved relations with the north.
And -- in what analysts have interpreted as an opening
towards Tokyo -- a North Korean official has suggested
Red Cross representatives might search for what he
called "missing Japanese" in the north. This is a
euphemism for Japanese who are alleged to have been
kidnapped by North Korea.
Japanese police suspect that at least 10 of their
countrymen were kidnapped in the 1970's and 1980's --
possibly to be used as trainers in Japanese language
and culture for North Korean spies. (signed)
Neb / wd / wd
22-Aug-1999 07:01 AM LOC (22-Aug-1999 1101 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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