Gov't cooling down Armitage talk

Apparently embarrassed by U.S. deputy secretary of state-designate Richard Armitage's dissenting view on President Kim Dae-Jung's North Korea policy, the Seoul government tried to calm the stir created by the American official's remarks.

In a statement issued by foreign ministry officials here Monday, the government said it would focus its efforts on arranging early South Korea-U.S. summit talks for the purpose of holding bilateral consultations on North Korea policy coordination. Seoul officials said Foreign Minister Lee Joung-Binn would have to meet more people and tackle a wider range of agenda items when he visits Washington in early February.

The foreign ministry statement said that some Korean leaders who attended the recent inauguration of U.S. President George Bush had informal discussions with American officials and then gave inaccurate or exaggerated versions of their conversations when they returned home.

Their comments were feared to undermine the friendly ties between South Korea and the United States and their continued partnership and mislead the Korean public as to the nature of Seoul's relationship with Washington, it added.

Officials in Seoul did not rule out the possibility of differences of viewpoint between the Seoul government and the new U.S. administration on the concept of reciprocity, and pointed to the need for adjusting and narrowing the differences.

Boo Hyung-Kwon bookum90@donga.com