[Focus] 4-way talks on Korea might change

A senior official in Seoul said Monday that the government is considering a change in the mode of operating the four-way talks among South and North Korea, the United States and China into a formula in which the two Koreas take the initiative in negotiating a peace agreement and then report the outcome to the main four-nation conference.

The existing pattern of two-plus-two on which the negotiations between the two Koreas are to be endorsed by the two big powers, with the four participants in attendance all at once, imposes a limit to the realization of a peace accord, he said.

It was the first time for the government to clarify its new stand on how to run the four-way talks. Washington and Beijing reportedly have consented to the idea. Seoul is cautious yet optimistic about a favorable response from North Korea in view of the current tendency toward inter-Korean rapprochement.

Two separate channels of inter-Korean negotiations to be proposed are known to call for having the two Koreas negotiate first at the peace-arrangement subcommittee and tension-reduction subcommittee of the four-power talks, or set up a separate committee of the two Koreas.

In this connection, President Kim Dae-Jung said in Singapore on Monday in his lecture organized by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies that during a summit among Kim, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori held last week, Zhu expressed his positive support for Seoul's interest in promoting the four-way meetings.

"Agreement already has been reached with the United States on resuming the four-nation conference, and a formal proposal soon will be made to North Korea to attend the resumed talks," Kim said.

At such meetings he hopes the two Koreas take the lead in establishing a system of peace and the question of mutual arms reduction could be taken up in the meantime, he added.

On Monday afternoon President Kim traveled to Indonesia on a state visit and met with Indonesian President Abdul Rahman Wahid to discuss further development of friendly ties between Seoul and Jakarta.

ymook@donga.com