Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=7/6/2001

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-277991 (CQ)

TITLE=U-S / NORTH KOREA (L ONLY)

BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST

DATELINE=STATE DEPARTMENT

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

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INTRO: State Department officials say Secretary of State Colin Powell may meet with North Korea's foreign minister later this month in Hanoi to try to advance the tentative dialogue between the two countries. V-O-A's David Gollust reports from the State Department.

TEXT: Mr. Powell and North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun will both be in Hanoi for consultations on the sidelines of an ASEAN foreign ministers meeting.

And officials here say a meeting between the two -- which would be the highest-level contact between the governments since late last year -- is a strong possibility.

The Bush administration announced last month after a lengthy policy review that it was ready to reopen talks with North Korea -- suspended since former President Clinton left office -- on a wide range of issues including Pyongyang's missile program and conventional force deployments.

A senior U-S diplomat met North Korea's U-N ambassador in New York June 13th to propose the new dialogue, but thus far there has been no definitive response from Pyongyang.

However, in a talk with reporters here, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said there are positive signs about prospects for further talks -- even though, as he put it, Pyongyang officials may have to do some "soul searching" before they are ready to come forward.

He said a recent commitment by North Korea to European Union officials that its missile-test moratorium will remain in effect until 2003 was "clearly" a signal to the United States. And he said Pyongyang is "living up to the letter" of the 1994 "framework" agreement with Washington under which it froze a nuclear program suspected of having a weapons component.

Mr. Armitage confirmed the United States had detected a North Korean engine test of one of its rockets late last month, but said there was nothing in itself wrong with that.

The deputy secretary also defended the administration's decision to seek limits on North Korea's conventional forces, which are concentrated along the Korean demilitarized zone.

He said the White House could not expect to win Congressional approval for any arms deal with Pyongyang that did not address the disposition of forces that threaten both South Korea and U-S troops on the peninsula.

The Clinton administration came close to securing a deal late last year that would have halted North Korea's missile program and missile technology exports -- in exchange for U-S aid and improved ties.

But the process -- which included an unprecedented Pyongyang visit by the then-Secretary of State Madaleine Albright in October -- ended several weeks later when it became clear that an accord could not be reached before President Clinton's term ended January 20th.

Secretary of State Powell is expected to discuss the U-S overture to North Korea on other stops of his Asian trip, including South Korea, Japan, and China. (Signed)

NEB/DAG/JWH/FC