As Bush holds back, Americans pursue dialogue with N.Korea
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By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent WASHINGTON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Amid a continued Bush administration split on the way ahead, other Americans -- including a congressman, senior Senate aides and former U.S. officials -- are meeting North Koreans at home and abroad to try to facilitate negotiations on nuclear and other issues. At least six times since last May, these individuals, in various combinations, have come together with North Korean officials in closed-door sessions that participants say have helped clarify positions and advance understanding on both sides of a hostile, suspicious divide. President George W. Bush has insisted on six-party talks to end the nuclear crisis and refused the kind of direct U.S.-North Korean negotiations Pyongyang demanded. A first round of official six-party talks was held in Beijing in August and efforts are underway to arrange a second round, perhaps in December. Meanwhile, the unofficial "track two" dialogue, while episodic, has provided a low key, informal way to skirt Bush's ban on substantive bilateral government interaction with the isolated Stalinist state. The contacts included a recent conference at the University of Georgia; a trip to Pyongyang by key Senate aides last August; a trip to Pyongyang in May by Rep. Curt Weldon, Republican of Pennsylvania; a University of California at San Diego conference in June, and a New York University conference in September. Discussions explored key issues, like the North's demand for a security guarantee in return for dismantling its nuclear programs, and U.S. human rights concerns. Bush said recently he was willing to give Pyongyang security assurances but his aides remain deeply divided over what that should mean. SENATE AIDES' TRIP A U.S spokesman, while acknowledging there may be slightly more North Koreans visiting the United States in 2003 than before, played down the meetings -- which the administration is usually briefed on and sometimes sends an observer. The spokesman said they do not reflect a shift toward direct U.S.-North Korea dialogue. In interviews with Reuters, U.S. participants stressed that their contacts are not part of any official "negotiations." But they believe in the importance of engagement with the North, are deeply worried about the administration's antipathy to direct dialogue and have made a point of reporting their findings to Congress and administration officials. There is grave concern that even the most proficient North Korean English-speakers -- who take their marching orders from dictator Kim Jong il -- fundamentally misinterpret U.S. positions, making prospects for agreement even harder. Senior aides Keith Luse and Frank Jannuzi were sent to Pyongyang in August by their respective bosses, Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the panel's ranking Democrat. Both senators "are committed to a peaceful resolution of the nuclear crisis and have been deeply concerned about the possibility of war by miscalculation or misunderstanding or by accident," Luse said in an interview. They "feel there is a benefit to dialogue in addition to formal talks," he said. Jannuzi said he believes the administration is sincere about a peaceful diplomatic solution with Pyongyang and "we hope Senator Biden and Lugar's interest, and sending us to the North to visit, will contribute to that." Among others, the two aides met in Pyongyang with Kim Gye Gwan, foreign affairs vice minister, a key interlocutor with Washington. They may return to North Korea in January. GEORGIA CONFERENCE Luse believes there is "genuine interest on the part of some in the North Korean government to engage in meaningful dialogue with the United States" to peacefully end the crisis. But Pyongyang must be tested on everything, he stressed. The two aides also attended a conference hosted two weeks ago by the University of Georgia that included former U.S. ambassadors to South Korea Donald Gregg and James Laney, Weldon, U.S. academics and five North Koreans. The State Department denied this but Weldon said it was significant the North Koreans received visas to attend the conference at the same time the White House prevented Weldon's own second trip to Pyongyang. Selig Harrison of the Center for International Policy, a thinktank, said he came away from the conference persuaded the North's Aug 27 proposal for reciprocal steps to end the nuclear crisis is serious and should be explored. Unofficial contacts have been used throughout diplomatic history with mixed results. Professor Susan Shirk of the University of California at San Diego, who has organized a number of the dialogues with North Korea, said "It's difficult to single out any particular evidence as to how (these track-two meetings) have made a difference in (U.S.) policy." "Track two is useful for clarifying the positions ... of the two sides to one another, especially at a time when there is such little (official) interaction (but) I don't think you should expect any dramatic short-term results," she said..
