N.K. shifts to softer mode

North Korea`s latest New Year`s message showed that the Pyongyang regime is prepared to cooperate on restarting the stalled multilateral talks aimed at ending Pyongyang`s nuclear weapons programs.

The North also appeared to be considering better relations with South Korea and the United States, toward which it has been vigorously critical in the past.

In this year`s message, Pyongyang refrained from such attacks or giving extreme preconditions for cooperating with Seoul or others.

"Regardless of whether this is a strategic ploy or not, the North has shown strong signs of willingness to improve relations with nations such as Seoul and Washington," said Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies here.

Both South Korea and the United States, along with China, Japan and Russia, are the North`s partners in the six-nation dialogue that has been halted since April after Pyongyang quit citing a United Nations denouncement of its rocket launch.

Towards Seoul, the North directly called on the need to "open the path for improving relations between the two Koreas" in the message carried in a joint newspaper editorial on Jan. 1.



Pyongyang stressed that this year marks the 10th anniversary of the June 15 agreement reached between the two sides under former President Kim Dae-jung.

There has been speculation since last year that the two Koreas may be heading toward a summit as the mood of reconciliation deepened following a rare visit by Washington`s special envoy Stephen Bosworth to Pyongyang.

Smoother relations with the United States usually give the North a push to patch up ties with the South, mostly for strategic reasons, according to experts here.

The time for the next round of six-nations talks have yet to be set despite Bosworth`s visit, but many including government officials here have said February will be the best time for the discussions to pick up.

The six-party roundtable may spawn four-way talks for replacing the current armistice with a permanent peace treaty, experts said.

Pyongyang reportedly relayed to Bosworth its demands for such a treaty as being crucial for stabilizing the peninsula. The four parties discussing the treaty would be the two Koreas, the United States and China.

Other noticeable points of the message were the regime`s emphasis on the economy.

"Pyongyang, for the first time in many years, has put more focus on the economy than the military," Yang said.

North Korea is seen to be under the influence of an ongoing global financial crisis.

Conditions are expected to have worsened in the wake of stringent sanctions laid down by the U.N. after the North conducted its second nuclear test in May last year.

The unfavorable economic climate is part of the reason Pyongyang is so eager to mend fences with Seoul, experts said, as inter-Korean projects have served the North well financially.

"There is also a political twist to the North`s focus on the economy and cooperation with others," Professor Yang said. "It is all proof that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is desperate to stabilize his state before relinquishing his throne."

The 68-year-old Kim has since last year been visibly preparing to bequeath his authority to his youngest son Jong-eun.

Kim recently launched a rare currency reform, partly to retrieve liquidity from the black markets, but also to reinforce authoritarian control.

Officials here, however, were cautious about being overly optimistic on the North`s latest message.

"It was a good to see the North not as hostile as before, but we are still far from seeing Pyongyang proving itself to be sincerely committed to denuclearization," one high-ranking official said on condition of anonymity.

The Lee Myung-bak administration, known to be more hawkish than its two predecessors, remains adamant that the North must embark on irreversible and complete denuclearization before Seoul can reach out for talks or financial aid.

President Lee last year proposed a "grand bargain" to the North under which Seoul and its partners of the six-nation talks would offer significant financial incentives in return for denuclearization.

(jemmie@heraldm.com)



By Kim Ji-hyun