North Korea-U.S. Foreign Ministers’ Meeting

Foreign ministers of South Korea, North Korea and the U.S held one-on-one meetings and exchanged opinions on July 2 on the sidelines of the eleventh ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) Regional Forum security talks in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The ARF came to a close with unanimous agreement of 24 member countries over the Chairman’s Statement. The member countries “strongly denounce[d] terrorist attacks against civilians” in the statement, but did not directly mention the recent tragic death of South Korean Kim Sun-il in Iraq.

At a meeting with North Korean foreign minister Paek Nam-sun, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said, “Under the circumstances in which North Korea continues to change its position on owning nuclear weapons since 1994, it is difficult to build trust between the U.S. and North Korea.”

North Korean minister Paek demanded details on possible provisions by the U.S. in return for the North’s dismantlement of nuclear programs such as “electricity of two million kW per day.”

This was the first time the two ministers had met since the ninth ARF held in July 2002 in Brunei.

South Korea’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon held talks with his North Korean counterpart for the second day in the morning of July 2 and said, “North Korea should not always look at the U.S. negatively” and urged, “With the U.S. having no intention to attack North Korea, the North must make bold political decisions.”

At the meeting with Secretary Colin Powell held earlier, Minister Ban said, “Although North Korea denied the existence of a Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) program at the inter-Korean foreign ministers’ meeting on July 1, we are focusing on the North’s comment that it is willing solve this nuclear problem in the ‘Keumchang-ri way.’”

The “Keumchang-ri way” refers to the provision of food by the U.S. to North Korea in exchange for the North allowing two on-site inspections at the underground nuclear facility in Keumchang-ri since 1999. The U.S. first raised suspicions over North Korea’s nuclear facility at Keumchang-ri in 1998.

Seung-Ryun Kim srkim@donga.com