More than 50 years after the end of the Korean War, the US and North Korea opened historic talks on steps to establish diplomatic relations following Pyongyang's agreement to dismantle its nuclear program.
North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan and US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill met for four hours on Monday evening for talks and dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. They left without any comment to waiting reporters.
Kim and Hill were to meet again yesterday amid rising expectations of improved US relations with a country President George W. Bush called part of an "axis of evil" five years ago.
This is the first US visit by Kim, North Korea's top nuclear negotiator, since the international standoff over the North's nuclear ambitions flared in late 2002.
Under an agreement reached at six-nation talks in Beijing last month on the North's nuclear program, the US and North Korea are supposed to open bilateral talks on establishing diplomatic ties.
The North, which tested a nuclear weapon last October, agreed at the talks to shut down its main nuclear reactor by mid-April as a step toward abandoning its nuclear program in exchange for aid.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack cautioned that this week's initial meetings would focus on setting the agenda for the US-North Korea working group led by Kim and Hill, the top US nuclear negotiator.
"I think that he [Hill] will talk to them about how the process might proceed regarding normalization," McCormack said, including taking North Korea off the US list of state sponsors of terrorism and opening the way for a normal trading relationship with the US.
Kim's first stop on Monday was the Korea Society, a nonprofit organization that promotes greater understanding and cooperation between US citizens and Koreans. He spent 4.5 hours with an array of academics and political figures including former US secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright.
"We had a very good and fruitful and friendly meeting," Albright told reporters.
She visited Pyongyang in October 2000 -- the highest-ranking US official ever to visit North Korea -- to try to curb the North's missile program.
Participants at the meeting, sponsored by the Korea Society and the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, said in a statement afterwards they discussed a range of US-North Korean issues including normalization of relations "in a friendly and forthcoming atmosphere."
"The participants agreed that continuing dialogue of this nature can be helpful in laying the foundation for improved official relations to be established through forthcoming negotiations," the statement said.
Kim arrived in New York late on Friday and met over the weekend with South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator Chun Yung-woo.
Chun told reporters afterward that "without a doubt, the North is committed to taking initial steps" to implementing its recent agreement to start dismantling its nuclear weapons program, Seoul's Yonhap news agency reported on Sunday.
A senior aide to South Korea's president will visit North Korea this week, an official said yesterday, amid media speculation the trip may be aimed at setting up a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Lee Hae-chan, a former prime minister and current member of parliament, will travel to Pyongyang today, said Seo Hye-seok, a Uri Party spokeswoman.
"The trip is aimed at discussing establishing a peace regime on the Korean peninsula with regard to implementing the Feb. 13 agreement," Seo said, referring to the six-nation deal that was reached last month on North Korea's nuclear program.
The announcement spurred speculation that Lee, one of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's closest confidants, may discuss setting up a meeting between Roh and Kim Jong-il.
Yonhap said the trip was apparently aimed at arranging a summit but Seo denied the media speculation.
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