South Korean Envoy Heads North

A South Korean special envoy left for Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Wednesday to discuss the revival of stalled diplomacy and shore up peace on the Korean peninsula.

Officials said the close aide to President Kim Dae-jung departed from a government airbase at 10 am (0100 GMT) on a special flight to Pyongyang for a three-day visit that will be the first public contact between the two sides since November.

"I am going to Pyongyang to prevent the build-up of tensions on the Korean peninsula and open the channels of stalemated North-South relations," presidential security adviser Lim Dong-won told a news conference before he left.

"I will convey fully President Kim's thoughts on peace and national reconciliation and listen to the views of the highest authorities in North Korea," Lim said.

Lim, who will carry a personal message from Kim Dae-jung to DPRK leader Kim Jong-il, said he and his hosts would "put our heads together" to work out ways to shore up peace and revive a series of lapsed North-South cooperation projects.

The projects include resuming reunions of families divided since the 1950-53 Korean War, restoring severed North-South road and rail links and reviving a troubled tourism scheme and a project to build a South Korean industrial park in the North.

Kim Dae-jung, 77 and in the final year of his presidency, is keen to revive his "Sunshine policy" of Korean rapprochement that he took to historic heights with a June 2000 summit with Kim Jong-il.

North-South relations have been frosty since last year, cooling off in tandem with the deterioration in DPRK relations with the United States under US President George W. Bush.

Bush has alarmed DPRK with tough accusations on Pyongyang's weapons of mass destruction and human rights record. Ties grew even icier this year after Bush labelled DPRK part of an "axis of evil" along with Iran and Iraq.

(China Daily April 3, 2002)