US President George W. Bush has sent a personal letter to top
leader Kim Jong-il of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
(DPRK), the White House confirmed on Thursday.
It was the first direct communications between the leaders of
the two countries.
The letter was conveyed to DPRK Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun
Wednesday by chief U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill, who was on
a visit to the DPRK from Monday to Wednesday.
The president stressed the need for the DPRK to come forward
with a full and complete declaration of their nuclear program as
called for in a document of the six-party talks, White House
spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said the president
decided to send the letter "so that we can keep it all on
track."
The US nuclear envoy, who flew to Beijing on Wednesday
afternoon, said on Thursday that President Bush had also sent
letters to leaders of the other parties involved in the nuclear
talks, including Russia, China, South Korea and Japan, to advance
the denuclearization process in the Korean Peninsular.
"I think the decision to send a letter out to all the parties
was in connection with the very important moment," Hill said in
Beijing.
He told reporters that it was possible to have a good draft of
the declaration of nuclear programs from the DPRK in a couple of
weeks.
According to a six-party talks joint document released in
Beijing on Oct. 3, the DPRK agreed to disable all the existing
nuclear facilities and provide a complete and correct declaration
of all its nuclear programs by the end of this year.
The document said the disablement of the five-megawatt
Experimental Reactor, the Reprocessing Plant (Radiochemical
Laboratory) and the Nuclear Fuel Rod Fabrication Facility in
Yongbyon would be completed by Dec. 31.
(Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2007)
