Kim expects JI Kim to visit Seoul this year

President Kim Dae-Jung has said that he believes North Korea`s National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-Il will visit Seoul within this year, but his return trip will be influenced greatly by future relations between North Korea and the United States.

``Northern leaders, including chairman Kim, have repeatedly promised a return visit, and we believe he will visit Seoul within the year. But the variable factor is North Korea-U.S relations, and that remains uncertain,`` Kim said in an interview with Newsweek`s chairman and editor-in-chief, Richard M. Smith, at Cheong Wa Dae last Thursday.

President Kim said that the possibility of chairman Kim`s trip to Seoul will be more certain when and if Washington and Pyongyang resume talks on missile and nuclear issues.

``We believe that future inter-Korean relations will depend very much on how the U.S. sets its North Korean policy and how its relations with Pyongyang develop. South-North relations are very much related to North Korea-U.S. relations,`` president Kim explained.

He also said that the U.S. administration wondered at Chairman Kim`s trustfulness and demanded reciprocity and verification. ``But my response is that we should continue to engage North Korea in dialogue, not because we necessarily trust them, but because we see an open door for us to induce them to follow the road of positive change.``

Asked about the possibility that Seoul might ignore reciprocity and verification in order to speed up progress in inter-Korean relations within his term, Kim said that he had already made an achievement in that the two sides had started sincere dialogue after 50 years of confrontation, but he would not cling to his present achievement.

Asked if the U.S. was moving too slowly in its relations with the North, Kim said he would wait and see how the Bush administration set its North Korean policy, but that was expected to take two or three months.

The U.S. weekly will publish the interview in its Apr. 23 edition.

Han Ki-Heung eligius@donga.com