NORTH KOREA, long isolated as a state that sponsors terrorism but keen to forge good relations with the next US administration, wants to send its chief nuclear envoy to president-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration, South Korean newspapers reported yesterday.
Pyongyang wants to send vice- foreign minister Kim Kye Gwan to Mr Obama's January 20th inauguration, and made approaches through its representatives at the United Nations last month, the JoongAng Ilbonewspaper reported.
However, Washington was unlikely to respond positively to the request, as talks over ending North Korea’s nuclear ambitions remain deadlocked.
“Even if North Korea wants to send an envoy, the US is unlikely to break from its long-held practice by officially accepting a foreign guest,” the Yonhap news agency reported, quoted an anonymous foreign ministry official.
South Korean foreign minister Yu Myung-hwan told reporters he had heard the reports, but said: “I understand things are not going that way.”
Washington and Pyongyang have been at loggerheads for many years over North Korea’s efforts to build nuclear capabilities. There have been many rounds of six-party talks involving both North and South Korea, the US, Japan, Russia and China in Beijing, which have made some headway but are constantly suffering setbacks.
A key issue for the North Koreans is that the secretive Stalinist state wants to be removed from a list of terror states and end its status as part of the “Axis of Evil” states delineated by President George Bush.
There have been positive signals in recent weeks. Normally Pyongyang issues a stridently anti-American address in its New Year’s Day statement, but this year held back in what is seen is a peace offering to the incoming leader.
However, many analysts believe that Kim Jong-il’s government is merely trying to test the waters ahead of the next round of talks under the new administration.