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North Korea signals desire to improve relations with West
September 18, 1996
Web posted at: 6:30 p.m. EDTFrom Correspondent Mike Chinoy
RAJIN-SONBONG, North Korea (CNN) -- A recent North Korean cultural performance for international visitors was filled with dancing and singing, but was missing one customary element.
Such displays have usually included vitriolic propaganda attacks on the United States. But in a sign of the changing times, North Korea is toning down its often harsh posture as it reaches out to its long-time adversary.
"The rhetoric has been toned down considerably," said Anthony Namkung of Seton Hall University. "It's clear they are suing for peace, and that they are interested in a long-term relationship with the United States."
In recent months, North Korea has hosted U.S. teams searching for Americans missing in action from the Korean War. Talks continue on opening a U.S. liaison office in the North Korean capital Pyongyang and a North Korean mission in Washington.
And the implementation of the agreement to control North Korea's nuclear program, signed two years ago, is moving ahead.
These North Korean moves have been accompanied by conciliatory gestures on other fronts.
The North Koreans are opening trade offices in Hong Kong and Taiwan. They have begun direct air service from Pyongyang to the Portuguese colony of Macau, and they are negotiating to allow international air carriers to use their long-closed air space.
The changing posture has helped ease suspicions in the United States.
"There's been a shift in attitude in Washington away from the notion that North Korea is a rogue nation that deserves to be punished at every turn, to one that perhaps we ought to engage in a measured fashion," Namkung said.
With North Korean, South Korean and U.S. troops still facing off along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, the Korean peninsula remains a dangerous place.
But there are now indications that North Korea may react positively to a U.S. proposal for four-party talks among the North, the South, Washington, and Beijing on a long-term peace agreement for the peninsula.
There is still a long way to go. But the signs are that long- isolated North Korea may be trying to come in from the cold.
Related stories:
- Food shortage not hurting North Korean government - September 17, 1996
- Professor admits he spied for North Korea - July 22, 1996
- U.S. diplomat plans visit to Korea as tension builds - May 23, 1996
- Faces of Conflict: Korea
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