Posted on 01/07/2005 8:24:41 PM PST by NormsRevenge
BEIJING (AP) - A U.S. congressman traveling North Korea Saturday said he will discuss the communist regime's nuclear program and human rights issues during talks with officials of the secretive communist nation.
The trip by Tom Lantos, the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, comes with a similar visit in the works by Rep. Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican who announced plans to travel with a bipartisan delegation earlier this week.
"I anticipate meeting with North Korean officials, discussing about the nuclear program, hopefully their reintegration into the international community," Lantos said at Beijing's airport while waiting to board a flight to Pyongyang, North Korea's capital.
"I am going to do my utmost to see if we can move the North Korean relationship with our partners, Japan, South Korea, China and Russia, closer to a constructive path," Lantos said.
The United States, North and South Korea, China, Japan and Russia have held three rounds of talks since 2003 to find a way of ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. But there have been no breakthroughs and the nations have yet to set a date for a new round of talks.
Lantos, who was traveling with about four other people who weren't immediately identified, expected to leave Pyongyang on Tuesday.
It wasn't immediately clear if Lantos would be joined by Weldon's group, which plans to leave for North Korea on Sunday.
Weldon led a group of lawmakers to the country in May 2003, the first such trip by U.S. officials to visit North Korea since it U.S. officials accused the communist nation of operating a clandestine nuclear program in 2002.
He said his delegation will meet with high-ranking government officials and visit schools, shopping centers and other community areas in Pyongyang.
Other members of the Weldon group include Reps. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas, Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, Fred Upton, R-Mich., Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., and Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.
Will Lantos start bad-mouthing America and blaming N.Korean treachery on Bush while he is still in N. Korea, or will he just wait until he gets back ???
Lantos is a butthead, but I have to admit, he had a great line for Craig Livingstone when they were trying to determine who hired him in the clinton WH......
What is the point of the trip. They are not going to be shown anything of value. I suspect that they are going to Hawaii for a week first, spend 3 days in NK, then a week in Hawaii on the way home. All on our dime.
Let's pay for Ms Boxer's plane fare ( one way ).
Lantos is an America-hating pig.......I hope he gets an incurable dose of dysentery and survives it for at least 6 months before he dies.
I always figured that RAT bastard would flee back to some commie country. Yank his passport and leave him there.
NK leader, Fearless Chia Head, wants to get some hair styling tips from Lantos...
Will Lanto's ask the creepy leader to do the right thing and off himself? "NOT"
oh...so he's off to talk to the great leader. Or is it the dear leader? Man...i get mixed up over all these titles for these tyrant dictators.
Ah, the House's own version of Dracula going to talk to another famous monster. Perhaps he'll convince him to commit soooooiccccide.
mabye it will end up the other way around.
Is he going to ask them to commit suicide?
I think the word he used was sueycide.
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