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S. Korea hopeful of better ties with North

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE Sept. 6. The South Korean President, Kim Dae-jung, today expressed "cautious optimism'' about future relations with the northern part of the divided peninsula.

Noting that North Korea seemed to be undergoing internal changes at present in a manner that might help improve an isolationist Pyongyang's ties with the outside world, Mr. Kim linked his hopes to the latest Japanese initiative to tap the new political dynamics at work.

Hosting a luncheon for the foreign correspondents in Seoul, he said that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Il, would not have invited a foreign leader like the Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, for talks in Pyongyang on September 17 "without giving it much thought''.

The South Korean President said he expected the Japan-North Korean summit, the first of its kind between two countries that still did not recognise each other, to "break the stalemate'' on their bilateral front.

In Mr. Kim's reckoning, North Korea would not have invited Mr. Koizumi just to send him back to Tokyo without any "successful results'' to show for the planned summit.

With these comments, Mr. Kim made it abundantly clear that he was now looking towards Japan to help break the political logjam in the inter-Korean dialogue itself. His own "sunshine policy'' of engaging Pyongyang, in a direct mode, had not produced the kind of positive momentum that he had hoped for in mid-2000, when he undertook a journey of peace and friendship to North Korea.

Mr. Kim indicated today that there were no firm plans for the North Korean leader to visit Seoul. Mr. Kim's meeting with foreign journalists was, in part, designed to send out a message that he was in good health in the context of the recent reports about his illness.

The two Koreas have in recent weeks held talks at the diplomatic level, while South Korea is now holding official-level talks with Japan and the U.S. to try and evolve a strategy to engage Pyongyang in proportion to its own willingness to reciprocate with the aim of settling the basic Korean question through a due political and diplomatic process.

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