Sunshine Policy disagreeable: Armitage

Richard Armitage, who is set to become deputy U.S. secretary of state, has recommended that the Seoul government cease to use term "sunshine policy" with reference to North Korea and that President Kim Dae-Jung make a working visit rather than a state visit to the United States.

He told a Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) leader visiting Washington to convey that wish to the Korean president when he received Hahn Hwa-Kap, a member of the ruling party supreme council at the Courtyard Hotel on the morning of Jan. 19 local time, said Ham Seong-Duk, professor of presidential studies at Korea University, who was on hand at the tete-a-tete.

A few Korea specialists have raised doubts about the appropriateness of the expression "sunshine policy." Yet the proposal against its use by an official of the Bush administration responsible for Korean affairs is likely to provoke some polemics here. The deputy secretary of state-designate expressed his hope that President Kim's visit should be a working visit and that his summit with Bush should come before North Korean strongman Kim Jong-Il's reciprocal trip to Seoul. He made his statements in response to Han¡¯s remarks in favor of an early Kim-Bush summit meeting.

Hahn reportedly delivered the message from the American official to President Kim. Since the government of Kim Dae-Jung stakes the fate of his regime on inter-Korean relations, the failure of the sunshine policy will deal a hard blow to Kim, Prof. Ham quoted Armitage as saying. According to Ham, Armitage observed that Kim Jong-Il seems to have the upper hand in Korean affairs, and thus have some influence on the United States and Japan.

The Bush administration is not opposed to the North Korean supreme leader but hopes for Seoul, Washington and Tokyo to stand in a firmer position of dealing with North Korea, Armitage added, so there must be reciprocity and positive signs forthcoming from Pyongyang.