U.S. Reassures South Korea on Ties to North

South Korean President Kim Young Sam won a pledge from President Clinton on Thursday that American efforts to upgrade ties with North Korea will go forward only if Pyongyang agrees to talk with Seoul.

Following an hourlong meeting with Kim at the White House, Clinton said that the United States considers the need for dialogue between the North and South to be “an integral part” of the agreements that the Administration has worked out with the Communist regime in Pyongyang over the past year.

Those agreements paved the way for North Korea to freeze its nuclear weapons program.

Clinton’s reassurances are important because of the continuing fear in South Korea that the North is establishing a separate relationship with the United States and, in the process, is cutting out the Seoul government.

The South Korean president cautioned, however, that he is still not ready for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, because, more than a year after his father’s death, Kim Jong Il has not been formally named his country’s head of state or government.

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“The next step is for them [the North Koreans] to install Kim [Jong Il],” one senior U.S. official said. He said that the United States believes there should be a meeting between the leaders of the two Koreas whenever “Kim Jong Il is fully installed in power.”

Over the past year, North Korea has not only conducted talks with the United States about its nuclear weapons program but also has moved toward exchanging diplomatic liaison offices with the United States. U.S. and North Korean officials conferred in Pyongyang in December to free an American helicopter pilot who strayed across the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas.

At the same time, North Korean officials have tried to force peace negotiations with the United States by undercutting the armistice agreement governing the truce that ended the Korean War. North Korea has refused to take part in the Armistice Commission and has kicked out Polish and Czech observers from its side of the border. There has never been a peace treaty or agreement ending the Korean War.

After his talks with Kim, Clinton insisted that, “until South and North Korea negotiate a peace agreement, the armistice regime will remain in place.”