Tracking Number: 189239
Title: "Top Korean Official Sees Reunification by the Year 2000." National Security Advisor Kim Chong Whi says the process will be costly, painful, and slow. (910703)
Translated Title: La Coree sera-t-elle reunifee en l'an 2000? (910703)
Author: SHEVIS, JIM (USIA STAFF WRITER)
Date: 19910703
Text:
*POL302
07/03/91
TOP KOREAN OFFICIAL SEES REUNIFICATION BY THE YEAR 2000
(Briefing by Roh's national security adviser) (430)
By Jim Shevis
USIA Staff Writer
Washington -- A senior official of the Republic of Korea says he thinks reunification of the Korean peninsula will occur "certainly before the turn of the century."
Kim Chong Whi, national security adviser to South Korean President Roh Tae Woo, told reporters July 2 that the reunification process will be "costly, painful, slow and difficult but, as with the Germans, once the process has started, nobody can stop it."
Briefing journalists on the meeting between Roh and President Bush in Washington earlier July 2, Kim said the two leaders assured each other their countries would maintain "close ties and cooperation" even after reunification takes place.
Most of the discussions between Roh and Bush dealt with "the question of the changing situation in East Asia -- what kind of world order will be emerging in years to come," the South Korean official said.
Following the leaders' 40-minute meeting at the White House, Richard Solomon, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told reporters that Roh expressed the "fervent desire of the Korean people for reunification as early as possible, hopefully before the end of the century."
While there have been talks between North Korea and South Korea at the prime-ministerial level on the possibility of reunification, there is currently no bilateral dialogue on the topic underway, Kim said.
"But sooner or later, I think a dialogue will resume. We are willing to be patient and flexible," he said.
South Korea's Kim, who attended the private meeting between Roh and Bush, along with Kim's U.S. counterpart, National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, said he thinks "things will change, will not stay the same" for several reasons.
For one, Kim Il Sung, North Korea's long-time Communist dictator, is 79 years old and it is generally understood that he is not in good health. "After Kim, certain problems and policies of North Korea may not be the same as today," he said.
GE 2 POL302
"Where once Kim Il Sung said something, it was almost like a bible. Even today, things are changing."
Also, North Korea is experiencing severe economic problems, Kim said. The country is isolated, its trade balance is in "extreme difficulty," and the gap between its gross national product and that of South Korea's is "widening, rather than narrowing," he said.
"I don't know how it is changing, but I am sure it is changing," Kim said.
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File Identification: 07/03/91, PO-302; 07/03/91, AE-310; 07/03/91, AF-308; 07/03/91, AR-307; 07/03/91, EP-304; 07/03/91, EU-311; 07/03/91, NE-305; 07/05/91, NA-505
Product Name: Wireless File
Product
Code: WF
Languages: French; Arabic
Keywords: KIM CHONG WHI; KOREA (NORTH)-KOREA (SOUTH) RELATIONS; REUNIFICATION (TERRITORY); KOREA (SOUTH)-US RELATIONS; SECURITY ARRANGEMENTS
Thematic
Codes: 140
Target Areas: AF; AR; EA; EU; NE
PDQ Text Link: 189239; 189288
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