Albright¡¯s visit vs. tripartite cooperation

The foreign ministers of South Korea, the United States and Japan will meet in Seoul Wednesday to orchestrate their future North Korea policies following U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's visit to Pyongyang.

The gathering of the three foreign ministers is drawing keen attention in that it will be held with the possibility of U.S. President Bill Clinton¡¯s trip to Pyongyang increasing in the wake of Albright¡¯s visit to the reclusive country for the past two days.

The three nations¡¯ North Korea policy coordination meeting was usually attended by assistant foreign minister-level officials, but the foreign ministers¡¯ participation Wednesday reflects the profound influence Secretary Albright¡¯s North Korea visit is expected to exercise not only on N.K.-U.S. relations, but on inter-Korean and N.K.-Japan ties. The meeting is to be held at the request of the Korean government.

The talks also mean the top diplomatic officials of the three countries need to improve the framework and strategies of their trilateral mutual assistance on the basis of the rapidly changing situation on the Korean Peninsula.

In particular, there is no doubt that if any epoch-making measures concerning the improvement of North Korea-U.S. relations are announced during Albright¡¯s Pyongyang visit, it will exert a corresponding influence upon South-North Korea and North Korea-Japan relations. This indicates that unless the three nations act in unison with respect to their North Korea policies, the traditional Seoul-Washington-Tokyo cooperation may break down.

First of all, it is speculated that North Korea will indicate its sincere desire to address the nuclear and missile questions, a key area of U.S. concern, on the occasion of Secretary Albright¡¯s Pyongyang visit. It is also expected that Pyongyang may solve the issue of its terrorism sponsoring by expelling the hijackers of the Japanese airliner Yodo. If so, the North¡¯s action will directly affect the Japanese side, which is conducting negotiations with the North on the establishment of diplomatic ties. In particular, the Japanese may grow more relaxed for the 11th round of talks with North Korea on the normalization of diplomatic links, slated for Beijing Oct. 30-31. This means Pyongyang-Tokyo relations may develop rapidly. And if the North is excluded from the list of terror-sponsoring states and becomes eligible for loans from international financial organizations, South-North economic cooperation will become elastic.

In the foreign ministers¡¯ meeting Wednesday, the government is expected to reconfirm that South and North Korea will take the leading role in solving the Korean Peninsula problem.

It is also predicted to stress that progress in inter-Korean relations, which are now at a standstill, is essential to sustained improvement in North Korea-U.S. and North Korea-Japan relations.

The government is also likely to deliver its concerns to the U.S. about the possibility of the present pause in inter-Korean relations being prolonged if Washington accelerates rapprochement with the North excessively in a bid to produce achievements at the end of the current administration.

The foreign ministers are expected to discuss holding four-way talks among Seoul, Pyongyang, Washington and Beijing on replacing the armistice agreement with a peace treaty to officially end the Cold War on the Korean Peninsula.