US: US special envoy Mr James Kelly arrived in the North Korean capital yesterday to restart high-level talks with North Korea. Mr Kelly is the most senior US official to visit since President Bush said the country was part of an "axis of evil". Mr Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, flew to Pyongyang from South Korea.
North Korea's official KCNA agency said: "The special envoy will explain the present US administration's Korea policy and its stand on the resumption of dialogue with the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea or North Korea\] and exchange views of issues of bilateral concern."
The team is scheduled to return to Seoul tomorrow after the highest-level dialogue between them in two years and the first such encounter under the Bush administration, apart from a brief meeting between the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, and the North Korean Foreign Minister, Mr Paek Nam-sun, in Brunei in July.
South Korean newspapers were doubtful about swift progress but did not rule out the possibility of an upbeat outcome. "It is hard to expect the US to extend financial aid without any positive action from the North on pending military issues," the daily Chosun Ilbo said, "but the North may decide to make small concessions on US demands and take a maximum advantage of US channels."
Mr Kelly was resuming a dialogue which tailed off in the last weeks of the Clinton administration after a visit to Pyongyang by then secretary of state Ms Madeleine Albright in October 2000 for talks with the North Korean leader, Mr Kim Jong-il.
Mr Bush reviewed US policy on North Korea for five months before agreeing to resume dialogue, but it has taken another 15 months to set up Mr Kelly's trip. In January, Mr Bush said North Korea, Iraq and Iran formed an "axis of evil" bent on sponsoring terrorism and spreading weapons of mass destruction.
In contrast to its inspections-or- war approach to Iraq, the US wants to talk to North Korea about its production and export of missiles, its frozen nuclear programme and its huge array of conventional forces along the DMZ border with South Korea, as well as human rights.
Last month, in a stunning about-face, Mr Kim Jong-il apologised to Japanese Prime Minister Mr Junchiro Koizumi for abductions of Japanese citizens and offered security concessions, notably an extended moratorium on missile tests. Mr Kelly said that progress and Mr Koizumi's tough dialogue had helped to convince Washington to move now. Critics had said the US had been looking marginalised.
North Korea's introduction of tentative economic reforms and other signs it is ready to emerge from diplomatic isolation have encouraged South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. - (Reuters)