Seoul’s Foreign Ministry on Friday declassified several diplomatic dossiers from 1994, revealing that the international community expressed doubt about North Korea’s future after the sudden death of the regime’s founder, Kim Il-sung.
The death of Kim Il-sung on July 8, 1994, sent the international diplomatic community scrambling to predict the future of the reclusive state, as well as who would be the next in line to rule, the dossier read. Kim died of a heart attack at the age of 82, after ruling North Korea for 46 years.
Most Washington officials expressed skepticism about the North’s future under the leadership of Kim Jong-il, Kim Il-sung’s eldest son and his successor.
Stanley Roth, who was senior director for Asian affairs at the US National Security Council at the time, said that Kim Jong-il “lacks charisma” compared to his father and is expected to face “several challenges” due to the prolonged economic hardships in his country. He made the remarks during a meeting with Ban Ki-moon, who was then a minister at the South Korean Embassy in Washington.
Roth added that speculation at the time — that Kim Jong-il had taken a hardline stance on nuclear issues — was true, and that Kim's stance would prevent the North from returning to the negotiation table.
Weeks before Kim Il-sung’s death, former US President Jimmy Carter visited North Korea and met with the country’s founder. The trip paved the way for a bilateral nuclear deal between the US and the North.
Carter’s visit to the reclusive nation later culminated in the Agreed Framework, signed by the US and the North in October 1994, in which Pyongyang pledged to freeze its illicit plutonium weapons program and halt construction on nuclear reactors. The US, in exchange, pledged to provide sanctions relief and several other forms of aid.
Roth’s predictions came true nearly a decade later, when Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003 and tested its first nuclear weapon on October 9, 2006.
Walter Mondale, who served as vice president under Carter, called Kim Jong-il “goofy,” “childish” and unfit to lead the regime, according to the dossiers.
Washington was divided on its assessment of Kim Jong-il, according to then-South Korean Ambassador to the US Han Seung-soo. The State Department was expecting him to adopt a policy similar to his father's, while the Central Intelligence Agency took note of his “unpredictable” and “extremist” characteristics.
Russia and China, now key partners of the North, took contrasting steps in dealing with Kim Il-sung’s death in 1994, according to the dossier.
Moscow officials, who did not closely engage with Pyongyang, due to their focus on reforms happening in their own country, painted a skeptical outlook for the regime.
China, meanwhile, took steps to back Kim, due to close relations between Kim Il-sung and then-Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, the dossiers read. The North Korea founder personally asked Deng to look after his son, and Beijing would honor that request as long as Deng is in power, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official told Seoul at the time.
Mexico's Foreign Ministry had to send out official notices to the diplomatic missions in Mexico City regarding Kim Il-sung's passing, which drew complaints from the South Korean Embassy there. The ministry had to explain that the North Korean Embassy had requested help as they were short-staffed and lacked photocopiers.
The news of Kim Il-sung’s death spread confusion at North Korean embassies around the world. The North Korean Embassy in Hanoi protested against a Vietnamese news agency’s reports of their leader’s sudden death, calling it an “absurd fabrication.” The Vietnamese news agency eventually had to submit news reports from the Korean Central News Agency, Pyongyang’s state media, as proof.
The announcement came just 17 days before what would have been the first inter-Korean summit.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
