home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- WORLD, Page 45World NotesDIPLOMACYTalking About Talks
-
-
- The enmity between North and South Korea is so bitter that the
- diplomatic world considers it an important step when the two sides
- merely talk about talking. Thus there was muted applause last week
- when the North Korean government agreed to send a delegation to
- Panmunjom on Feb. 8 to discuss arrangements for a meeting between
- Prime Minister Yon Hyong Muk and his South Korean counterpart, Kang
- Young Hoon. Seoul had proposed such a meeting last year, hoping for
- an eventual summit between South Korean President Roh Tae Woo and
- North Korean President Kim Il Sung.
-
- The North Koreans expressed little interest in a summit but
- suggested that the Prime Ministers hold talks on such long-standing
- Northern demands as the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Korean
- peninsula. The Roh government would have preferred to start
- discussions on less contentious topics, but went along with the
- Pyongyang proposal. Said Roh: "There are changes in the North that
- cannot be easily seen. I think we will have a summit meeting in the
- not too distant future."