U.S., South Korean officials
to discuss relations with N. Korea
By Jim Lea, Stars and Stripes
SEOUL — U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar was set to arrive Tuesday in
Seoul for talks with South Korean officials on North Korea and other bilateral issues.
A staunch supporter of President Kim Dae-jung’s “sunshine
policy” toward North Korea, Lugar, R-Ind., is to make a courtesy call on Kim and hold
discussions with officials from the Foreign, Defense and Forestry ministries, a Foreign
Ministry spokesman said.
The spokesman declined to say what would be discussed, but the
ongoing Bush administration U.S. policy review toward North Korea is thought to be a
central issue. That review, which has put North-South relations in limbo for more than two
months, is expected to be completed soon.
On Monday, Pyongyang issued another demand that the United States
withdraw its 37,000 troops from the South. The report, carried by the state-operated
Korean Central News Agency, said there “is no rationale” for stationing American
troops on the peninsula or for Washington to “demand a reduction in the North Korean
military.”
The report said future relations between Pyongyang and Washington
will depend on whether or not U.S. troops remain in the South.
Seoul’s Foreign Ministry also has announced that Charles
Kartman, director of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization — commonly
called KEDO — will arrive June 4 to discuss plans to provide two light-water reactor
nuclear power plants to Pyongyang.
Kartman will meet with Foreign Minister Han Seung-soo and Unification
Minister Lim Dong-wan during the visit. South Korean, Japanese and French members of KEDO
also will take part in the talks.
Kartman served as U.S. a chief negotiator with North Korea during the
final days of the Clinton administration and was named head of KEDO by Bush.
There have been persistent rumors that the Bush administration wants
to substitute less expensive thermal power plants for the nuclear plants Washington
promised the North in a 1994 agreement.
Seoul, however, has expressed strong opposition to changing the
agreement in any way, saying that the North may back out of the agreement if any changes
are made.
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