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By Root 1699 0

American troops from South Korea. Such a move had long been one of Kim's central goals, in the belief that this would lead inevitably to reuniting the peninsula under his leadership, whether by peaceful or violent means. In public and in private, Kim had made Washington his enemy number one, blaming the United States for dividing the peninsula in 1945, intervening in 1950 to prevent reunification on Kim's terms, turning South Korea into its colony, elevating and sustaining Park Chung Hee as a military dictator, and a variety of other offenses, real or imagined. In the North Korean Dictionary of Political Terminologies, published in 1970, "U.S. imperialism" was defined as the work of the "most barbarously piratical invader and head of all other imperialistic countries." On the eve of Carter's inauguration, however, the fierce rhetoric was dropped, and the "American imperialist aggressor army" became simply "American forces" in Pyongyang's statements. The DMZ killings were blamed on the outgoing Ford administration by name, giving the incoming president a clean slate in Pyongyang.

Behind the scenes, Kim made energetic efforts to engage Carter directly. Beginning with an open letter to the U.S. Congress in 1973, Pyongyang had been appealing to Washington to open direct negotiations on replacing the existing armistice agreement with a peace treaty to pave the way for withdrawal of American troops and weapons from South Korea. In November 1976, immediately after Carter's election, Kim stepped up the campaign, sending a personal letter through the president of Pakistan to the U.S. president-elect at Plains, Georgia, asking for direct contacts. This was followed in February 1977 by a message to Secretary of State Vance from. North Korean foreign minister Ho Dam, through the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan, expressing Pyongyang's desire to avoid confrontation with the United States, to pursue reunification peacefully, and to open. direct U.S.- DPRK peace talks, which at least initially would exclude South Korea. The American reply expressed interest in discussions with the North, including discussions of "more permanent Armistice arrangements," but only if Seoul was permitted to participate fully.* At the time, this was a nonstarter in Pyongyang. In gestures to Pyongyang, Carter lifted the ban on travel to North Korea by U.S. citizens in March and for the first time invited North Korea's UN representative to an official U.S. reception.

In July 1977, in this era of high expectations, a U.S. Army helicopter was shot down by North Korean forces after it strayed over their side of the DMZ, killing three crewmen and leaving the fourth a captive. In a remarkably mild reaction, Carter described the flight as a mistake and played down the conflict. In response, North Korea returned the bodies and the captured American within three days, an unprecedentedly short time for such a move.

Yet as Carter was forced to modify and stretch out his program of American withdrawal, Kim became increasingly critical. "Carter has not kept his election pledges," Kim told visitors, charging that the withdrawal pledges were "aimed at deceiving the world." In a talk with a Japanese editor, Kim bitterly called the U.S. president "a con man" because of his position on Korean issues.

On December 8. 1977, Kim received a three-day visit from Erich Honecker, the general secretary of the East German Socialist Unity (Communist) Party, who came to be one of Kim's closest and most useful overseas friends. Both were lifelong revolutionaries who had advanced to high places with Soviet backing. Like Korea, Germany had been divided as a result of World War II. East Germany, like North Korea, was struggling to survive against a more populous and more prosperous capitalistic regime across a heavily militarized dividing line. Encouraged by the Soviet Union and recognizing the similarities, the German Democratic Republic (GDR, the formal name of East Germany) had been an important source of economic aid during all of North Korea's existence.

Kim prepared meticulously to receive