Posted on 08/25/2010 3:40:27 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
(LEAD) Carter in N. Korea to free imprisoned American amid brewing nuclear diplomacy
By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Aug. 25 (Yonhap) -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter arrived Wednesday in North Korea, official media reports said, as he sought to secure the release of an American imprisoned there amid brewing signs of diplomacy aimed at reviving nuclear talks involving Pyongyang.
"Jimmy Carter, ex-president of the U.S., and his party arrived here Wednesday," the North's Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch seen here, adding Pyongyang's top nuclear envoy, Kim Kye-gwan, received him at the airport.
A child handed the 85-year-old a flower bouquet after Carter arrived on a chartered plane, the North's Korean Central Television Station said in a separate report. China's official Xinhua news agency said Carter "declined to speak to the press at the airport."
Carter's arrival marks his first known trip to North Korea in 16 years. In 1994, he met with then North Korean leader Kim Il-sung and helped defuse soaring tensions on the Korean Peninsula and set the mood for a breakthrough in nuclear talks.
U.S. officials have refused to describe Carter's trip as anything more than private and humanitarian. A team of U.S. officials traveled to North Korea earlier this month in a failed attempt to bring home Aijalon Mahli Gomes, a 30-year-old American citizen who was sentenced to eight years of hard labor and fined an equivalent of US$700,000 in May for illegal entry.
Last month, Gomes attempted suicide out of frustration that his country was not doing enough to save him, according to the North's official media. Pyongyang reportedly promised to set Gomes free if Carter visited the communist country.
The visit, which the U.S. declined to formally confirm, came a day ahead of a three-day trip to South Korea by Chinese nuclear envoy Wu Dawei, who met with his North Korean counterpart last week in Pyongyang.
Trying to put behind the regional tension that has soared since the sinking of a South Korean warship in March, North Korea and China have been seeking to resume six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear arms programs that had been in limbo since 2008.
South Korea and the U.S., which are two of the negotiating partners along with Russia and Japan, have dismissed the chances of resuming the talks unless the North apologizes for the sinking that killed 46 sailors. Pyongyang denies any role in the incident.
On Wednesday, however, a South Korean foreign ministry official, speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity, said the sinking and the six-party talks are "different in nature."
"It'd be a stretch to establish a direct connection between the two," the official said, hinting that Seoul may be easing its months-long stance and opening room for a breakthrough.
Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan was more explicit as he spoke in Seoul to a group of reporters from Japan.
"The North must act on its promise to disable" its nuclear facilities and allow international nuclear monitors back on its soil, he said, describing the steps as necessary for guaranteeing the success of the six-party dialogue, if it is resumed.
Focus has centered on whether Carter's visit would provide fresh impetus for possible dialogue between North Korea and the United States and the stalled six-party talks. Following former U.S. President Bill Clinton's visit in August of last year to North Korea on a humanitarian mission to free two U.S. journalists held there, Washington sent its top nuclear envoy, Stephen Bosworth, to Pyongyang in December to urge the regime to return to the six-party talks, only to see the call go unanswered.
Gomes taught English in South Korea between 2006 and 2009. He joined rallies denouncing North Korea's dismal human rights records and reportedly sympathized with Robert Park, a Korean-American missionary who entered North Korea illegally from China in December but was set free about two months later.
Carter, the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner who headed the White House from 1977 to 1981 as a Democrat, has called on his government to engage North Korea directly and without fear.
"There is no harm in making a major effort, including unrestrained direct talks. The initiative must be from America and South Korea," he said in a speech in Seoul in March.
No U.S. officials apparently accompanied Carter in his latest trip to North Korea, during which he may seek a meeting with leader Kim Jong-il, the son of Kim Il-sung. The 68-year-old North Korean leader met with Clinton last year when he visited Pyongyang. Kim also held talks with then U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright when she traveled to Pyongyang in 2000.
Kim is said to be struggling with health problems since he apparently suffered a stroke in the summer of 2008. His third son, Jong-un, is widely considered being groomed to take over the secretive country, which will hold a rare ruling party meeting next month that could offer a glimpse into the succession process.
It remains to be seen how the release of Gomes, if successful, would influence the fate of four South Koreans and three Chinese captured by a North Korean patrol boat while fishing off the east coast of the divided peninsula earlier this month.
North Korea says the 41-ton South Korean boat Daeseung violated its exclusive economic zone. China, which has sided with North Korea in an array of diplomatic issues, has appealed to North Korea to release the crewmen, but Pyongyang has yet to respond amid heightening military tensions with Seoul over the Cheonan sinking.
North and South Korea remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty. Their relations have deteriorated in recent years as conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak opposes sending massive aid to North Korea unless Pyongyang makes good on its promise to denuclearize.
 Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter meets Kim Il-sung on his visit to Pyongyang amid mounting tensions over North Korea's nuclear threat in June 1994 (file photo). /Yonhap |
Hey Kim the guy fancies himself a nuclear scientist. We really wouldn’t be bent out of shape of you kept him.
Having a ex-president visit gives those in power a huge propaganda tool.
Carter never met a dictator he didn’t like..
Nice outfit... apparently he dresses himself, and from the looks of it, I’d say he’s about as successful at that as he was at “presidentin’”.
He obviously picked out that jacket and pants in a very dark room.
He’s over there campaigning for the Chia Pet’s job. He loves dictatorships.
A PLEA TO THE NORTH KOREANS
Please send back the prisoner and keep Carter!!!!
Let’s keep that useful idiot in North Korea permanently. Maybe he can ruin that country like he tried to do to us here !
The definiition of insanity is doing the same thing again and expecting a different result. Carter got a bogus deal last time. Now he is seeking another deal.
One of the greatest ambitions in my life is to pi$$ on this man’s grave.
Obama should have offered Jimmuh as a replacement hostage for the imprisoned American. Throw in Jesse Jackson as a hostage to be named later in the deal.
Mrs. Prince of Space
I was wondering if Jimmy would have gotten the "Hans Brix" treatment.
Carter promises to apply an even BIGGER smooch than Bill Clinton on Kim Jong Il’s backside.
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