Korean peace talks resume after delay

March 16, 1998
Web posted at: 10:31 a.m. EST (1531 GMT)

GENEVA (CNN) -- A second round of peace talks on the future of the divided Korean Peninsula began on Monday, after a five-hour delay.

There was no official explanation for the delay of the formal opening of the talks, which are aimed at paving the way for a formal peace accord between North and South Korea.

The chief delegates for the combatants in the 1950-1953 Korean War -- the United States, South Korea, North Korea and China -- finally sat down for the formal round of talks after several hours of informal talks that stretched well into the afternoon.

Forty-five years after the Korean War ended with a cease-fire, the former warring parties are attempting to achieve a formal peace accord between North and South Korea, which are technically still at war.

The first round of talks, last December, highlighted sharp differences between Washington, Seoul and Pyongyang. Those differences still remain.

VXtreme Video CNN's Mike Chinoy reports

"The United States hopes that it can use the four-power talks to bring about a relaxation of the military tensions in the Korean peninsula," says Selig Harrison, an expert on North Korea, before the talks began.

"From North Korea's point of view, what they're looking for in Geneva is whether the United States is going to relax economic sanctions that it has had in place with North Korea since the Korean War," he said.

U.S. President Bill Clinton and then-South Korean President Kim Young-sam proposed the four-party format two years ago, in part because North Korea was unwilling to deal directly with the government in Seoul.

South Korean President Kim Dae-jung

But South Korea now has a new president, Kim Dae-jung, who, unlike his hardline predecessor, has long advocated a conciliatory line towards Pyongyang. The talks this week will provide the first real opportunity to judge how North Korea intends to respond.

"If there's ever going to be a South Korean leader that North Koreans could deal with, it is probably Kim Dae-jung," said Robert Manning of the Council on Foreign Relations. "And so if they can't deal with him, they are telling us basically that nothing is possible."

So far, there have been encouraging signs. Pyongyang has toned down its usually vitriolic propaganda toward South Korea, and there have been no personal attacks on Kim Dae-jung. But it remains unclear whether North Korea is ready for genuine dialogue with its longtime rivals in Seoul.

A senior North Korean negotiator said Sunday that North Korea will renew its long-standing demand for the withdrawal of 37,000 U.S. troops from South Korea.

President Clinton and former South Korean President Kim Young-sam

"To us, the issue of American troop withdrawal is one of the major subjects at the negotiations," said Li Gun, deputy head of the North Korean delegation and Pyongyang's ambassador to the United Nations.

The meetings at Geneva's main diplomatic conference center are expected to last all week. Regular meetings every two or three months are expected to follow.

Separately from the Geneva talks, officials from North and South Korea are to meet in Beijing on Wednesday to resume discussions on additional food aid to the famine-stricken North.

The South Korean news agency Yonhap reported Sunday that South Korea is expected to give 200,000 tons of free fertilizer to North Korea in response to a request from the impoverished country.

Correspondent Mike Chinoy and Reuters contributed to this report.

Related stories:

• N. Korea reportedly begins a military mobilization - March 13, 1998
• S. Korea grants amnesty to millions - March 13, 1998
• Shoving, shouting as S. Korean lawmakers vote on premier - March 2, 1998
• Opposition boycott shadows South Korea's new president - February 25, 1998

Related sites:

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• Official site of the Republic of Korea
• Korean Embassy in Washington DC
• Korea Herald
• Korean Overseas Information Service

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