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North Korea reportedly backs U.S military presence
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- In a switch from its long held assertion that U.S. troops must withdraw from the Korean peninsula, North Korea has said the troops are needed to keep peace and stability in the region, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung said in an interview in Monday's New York Times. Kim Dae Jung said he was quoting almost verbatim from President Kim Jong-il of North Korea when he said: "We are surrounded by big powers -- Russia, Japan and China -- so the United States must continue to stay for stability and peace in East Asia." Kim Dae Jung's statement was published as Kim Yong-Sun, the North Korean leader's personal emissary, arrived in Seoul on Monday for trip where he is expected to discuss arrangements for a visit to Seoul by Kim Jong-il.
On Sunday it was announced that the two Koreas would march together at the Olympics for the first time since the armed truce that ended the 1950-1953 Korean War. The South Korean president told the New York Times in an interview conducted on Saturday that after a peace treaty is finalized between North and South Korea, the U.S. troops would operate "under the same logic" as they did in Europe as part of NATO after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Kim Dae Jung said he could not envision what form unification would take, or how soon it would happen. But, he said, he would like to see a peace treaty and "peace, cooperation and exchanges" with North Korea by the time his term ends in two years. In a speech at the Korea Society in New York on Sept. 9, the South Korean president said he wanted a military treaty governing the status of the 37,000 U.S. troops in Korea to be revised quickly and reasonably. South Korea wants to increase its legal jurisdiction over the troops, who now are governed by U.S. law although they are on Korean soil. In the New York Times interview, South Korea's Kim Dae Jung reiterated that he would like relations to improve between North Korea and the United States, as well as between North Korea and the European Union and Japan. "For things to progress smoothly, there must be improved relations between the United States and North Korea, between North Korea and the European Union and between North Korea and Japan," he told the New York Times. "We cannot carry on this process on our own." Kim Dae Jung said President Kim Jong-il's recent suggestion that North Korea would curb its missile programme if the West would help it finance satellite launches should be taken seriously. In talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July, the North Korean leader was reported to have offered to scrap his country's missile programme if the United States agreed to launch North Korean satellites. A South Korean newspaper later quoted Kim Dae Jung as saying the offer was just a joke, but Washington took it seriously. The threat of North Korean missiles is one of the main reasons Washington is considering a limited national defense system. Kim Dae Jung had discussed North Korea's suggestion with President Bill Clinton when they met on the sidelines of the U.N. Millennium Summit last week. "The president indicated that we were very interested in finding out more about North Korea's interest in perhaps gaining access to commercial launching facilities outside North Korea in return for ending their missile programme," said P.J. Crowley, spokesman for the National Security Council, on Sept. 7. Kim Dae Jung had been due to hold talks with North Korean-designated head of state Kim Yong-nam on the sidelines of the U.N. summit but the prospect of talks vanished when the North's delegation flew home complaining of rude body searches by U.S. airline staff in Frankfurt. Later, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said North Korea had accepted a U.S. apology. Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
RELATED STORIES: High-ranking North Korean official to visit Seoul this week RELATED SITES: Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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