Bush writes to North Korean leader

SEOUL—US President George W. Bush has sent a personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday. It did not disclose the contents of the reported letter, which comes at a crucial time in international efforts to scrap the communist state’s nuclear programme.
US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill delivered it to North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-Chun this week, the agency said in a three-line report which gave no further details. Hill, the US chief negotiator with Pyongyang, visited the North this week to observe the US-led disabling of its nuclear plants at Yongbyon.
Bush is not known to have communicated personally before with the hardline communist state, which he termed part of an “axis of evil” in 2002. He once reportedly said he “loathes” Kim Jong-Il. The North shocked the world with its first nuclear test in October 2006. But this year it agreed, under a six-nation pact which includes the US, to disable its plutonium-producing plants and declare all nuclear programmes and facilities by year-end.
In return it would receive major energy aid. But South Korea’s Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon said earlier Thursday it may miss the deadline for the declaration. “Currently the nuclear issue is at a crossroads where it may proceed towards a stable phase or to a rough road,” Song said.
“As to the declaration part, progress is not yet being made. We are aiming at the end of the year as a target date but if we miss it, we will be flexible in readjusting it and doing it in a realistic way.” A South Korean official said later that a key problem is the North’s refusal to address its suspected highly enriched uranium weapons (HEU) programme to US satisfaction.
The latest nuclear crisis began in late 2002 when the US accused North Korea of having a secret HEU programme in addition to its declared plutonium operation. Pyongyang has never admitted such a programme. The North is also demanding that it be removed from a US list of state sponsors of terrorism in return for denuclearisation, as envisaged in the six-nation pact.
The designation prevents it receiving US economic aid and also blocks aid from multilateral bodies like the World Bank. Bush must notify the US Congress if he intends to remove the designation. Song said such an action was conditional on getting a full declaration.
“The US is preparing to remove the North from the list of terror-sponsoring states if it (declaration) is carried out to an acceptable degree,” he said. Hill is currently visiting Beijing, which hosts the six-party talks also grouping the two Koreas, Russia and Japan. He stressed that the North must make credible declarations about all its programmes.
“We want to make sure that when they transfer (issue) even a first draft, that it is credible,” Hill told journalists. “We need them to step up and show some trust in us and trust in the process.”
Hill has said Washington has “credible evidence” of North Korea purchasing equipment and materials that could be used in a HEU programme. Pyongyang must account for these before Washington moves towards establishing diplomatic relations, he said Thursday.
“We have had a lot of discussion with them about uranium enrichment. It is a very delicate... discussion,” Hill said. “Being clear about what has happened in the past is the means for us to build a future relationship.” Following talks in Beijing, which will include discussions with the Russian ambassador, Hill said he would meet his Japanese counterpart to the talks in Tokyo on Friday before returning to Washington.—Agencies