The Two Koreas_ A Contemporary History - Don Oberdorfer [245]
In July, a month after the Pyongyang summit, North Korea joined its first regional security organization, the Asian Regional Forum sponsored by Southeast Asian nations. A month after that, it renewed its previous application for membership in its first international financial organization, the Asian Development Bank. Meanwhile, Kim Jong Il received Russian President Vladimir Putin, and prepared for his second journey in a year to meet Chinese leaders. In September his Foreign Ministry sent letters to the European Union and every European country proposing the opening of relations. Just prior to the summit, the DPRK established diplomatic relations with Italy and Australia. Between the summit and early 2001, North Korea established diplomatic relations with the Philippines, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Spain, and Germany, and moved toward opening relations with several others. The whirlwind of diplomatic activity on the part of previously reclusive North Korea was startling.
ENGAGING THE UNITED STATES
While the remarkable opening to the South was taking place, North Korea's engagement with the United States was marking time. From September 1999 to September 2000, U.S. and North Korean diplomats met in formal bilateral sessions five times in Berlin, Rome, and New York City, with only marginal progress on the issues before them. Additional meetings on such issues as missiles, terrorism, and the search for Americans missing in action from the Korean War also made little progress.
On September 27, 2000, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan sat down with Ambassador Charles Kartman, the chief U. S. negotiator with Pyongyang, in the twelfth-floor conference room of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations to begin a new round of comprehensive talks on issues between the two governments. Before bargaining could begin, however, Kim announced that Pyongyang at last was ready to send to Washington the special envoy it had long promised to advance the relationship. To the surprise of the Americans, he revealed that the visitor would be Vice Marshal Jo Myong Rok, first vice chairman under Kim Jong Il of the ruling National Defense Commission and by most calculations the second most important person in the country. Moreover, Pyongyang proposed to send him right away. The dates for his visit were quickly fixed at October 9-12, less than two weeks away. The selection of such a high-level emissary-and especially a top-level military figuresuggested that Kim Jong Il was prepared to deal with Washington's central concerns, which were security issues.
After an overnight stopover in northern California, which was hosted by William Perry and included visits to Silicon Valley hightechnology firms, Jo and his party, which included the highly trusted First Deputy Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju, arrived in Washington on October 9. As a young man, Jo had been a minor aide to Kim Il Sung at the end of World War II and had cradled the toddler Kim Jong Il in his arms. A military pilot, he became commander of the DPRK Air Force around 1980. After the death of Kim II Sung in 1994, he began a meteoric rise from 89th on the 273-man funeral committee to 11th among leaders of the party, the government, and the military in 1996, and second only to Kim Jong 11 as first vice chairman of the ruling National Defense Commission in 1998. Although a military professional with a soldier's bearing who displayed little interest in politics, Jo was also chief of the General Political Department of the Korean People's Army, and was therefore in position as the senior political commissar of the armed forces to protect the interests of Kim Jong Il.
Jo appeared that morning in a conservative dark-blue suit at the State Department to meet Secretary Albright, but changed to his marshal's uniform, replete with row after row of campaign ribbons and decorations, for his meeting with President