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Kim Jong-il committed to summit with Seoul
Kim Jong-il, leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), told a European Union delegation yesterday he would maintain his country's moratorium on missile tests, Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said.
Kim also said he remained committed to a second summit with President Kim Dae-jung of the Republic of Korea (ROK), but that it would only take place once US President George W. Bush had completed his policy review on the DPRK.
"Kim Jong-il said the moratorium on testing would last until 2003, during which period they would wait and see," Persson told a news conference in the capital of the DPRK.
"We have also a clear message that Kim Jong-il is committed to a second summit," he said.
The DPRK leader's comments were his first on the two issues since Bush took office in January.
Also yesterday, the DPRK accused Washington of trying to isolate it after the US State Department kept the DPRK on its list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
The United States on Monday published its annual blacklist of countries it accuses of sponsoring terrorism, one that has not changed in eight years and includes the DPRK and six other countries.
"This is a provocative criminal move of the Bush administration to internationally isolate the DPRK pursuant to its undisguised hostile policy towards the DPRK," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a commentary monitored in Seoul.
"The DPRK has clarified more than once its principle and stand on opposing all forms of terrorism and has put them into practice," KCNA said.
Being removed from the terrorist list is crucial for Pyongyang to gain membership of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Monetary Fund and tap potentially billions of dollars worth of aid money.
The United States wants Pyongyang to hand over for trial members of a Japanese Red Army faction who participated in the hijacking of a Japanese Airlines flight in 1970.
Talks with the former Clinton administration had made some progress on the issue last year.
But Washington has put ties with Pyongyang on hold after a series of high-level contacts last year, including a visit by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in October.
The Bush administration has taken a more sceptical stance towards the DPRK, angering Pyongyang and raising fears the process of rapprochement across the last Cold War frontier is losing momentum.
The English-language Korean Herald in Seoul, which generally reflects official foreign policy views, said on Monday "it is regrettable and unfortunate" the DPRK is being denied observer status at the ADB's annual meeting in Honolulu next week.
The DPRK has applied for membership of the ADB, one of whose major shareholders is the United States.
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