U.S., N. Korea to normalize ties

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

SEOUL -- North Korea's top nuclear negotiator was on his way to the United States yesterday for talks on issues that a State Department official said would include the first steps toward the normalization of diplomatic relations.

The trip, which coincides with the first high-level talks between North Korea and South Korea in more than four months, reflects the rapid easing of tensions with President Kim Jong-il's regime since North Korea agreed this month to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for heavy fuel oil and other concessions.

Kim Kye-gwan, North Korea's vice minister of foreign affairs, arrived in Beijing yesterday and was expected in San Francisco tomorrow, a State Department official told The Washington Times. He will continue to New York for talks with his U.S. negotiating counterpart, Christopher Hill, which will likely begin early next week.

At a State Department briefing yesterday, spokesman Sean McCormack said the two would begin a process of normalization described in the nuclear deal concluded with Pyongyang on Feb. 13 in Beijing.

That agreement calls for the two countries to open bilateral talks "aimed at resolving pending bilateral issues and moving toward full diplomatic relations."

Asked yesterday to confirm that diplomatic normalization would be a part of the New York talks, a State Department official said yes. Normal diplomatic relations typically involve an exchange of ambassadors and related courtesies.

The process to be started in New York also calls for the United States to "begin the process of removing the designation of [North Korea] as a state-sponsor of terrorism and advance the process of terminating the application of the Trading With the Enemy Act with respect to [North Korea]."

Before traveling to New York, Mr. Kim is expected to deliver a speech and meet with private organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. The State Department official was not certain how long he would be there.

Travel by North Korean diplomats at the United Nations normally is restricted to a 25-mile radius of Manhattan, although exceptions have been made with State Department permission.

The United States still maintains it does not talk to North Korea outside the context of the six-party negotiations, which involve China, Russia, South Korea and Japan. But the outlines of the Beijing deal were worked out in advance during three days of one-on-one meetings between Mr. Kim and Mr. Hill in Berlin.