Moratorium on missile tests to continue

By F. J. Khergamvala

TOKYO, MAY 3. Mr. Kim Jong Il put out the word today that North Korea had extended the voluntary moratorium on test firings of long-range missiles until 2003. In a series of other announcements related to substantive issues, Mr. Kim showed the gift of advantageously exploiting international circumstances.

Sweden's Prime Minister, Mr. Goran Persson heading a European Union delegation, told a news conference in Pyongyang on Thursday that North Korea would extend a 1999 moratorium on missile tests. The extension thus stands out in sharp contrast to the generally negative worldwide reaction to Mr. George W. Bush's detailed global policy speech at the National Defence University in Washington DC, where the focus was on missile defence.

Mr. Persson, leading the delegation because Sweden currently holds the rotating six-month presidency of the European Council, also added that he too had expressed strong concern about the missile programme but that the missile defence not being an E.U. matter, he was not going to take any position or negotiate. Accompanied by the E.U. policy chief, Mr. Javier Solana and the External Relations Commissioner, Mr. Chris Patten, the Prime Minister was shown on T.V. being received by Mr. Kim Jong Il on Wednesday. The entourage did carry reporters.

It may not be a coincidence that the 15-minute casual summit took place the same day as Mr. Bush's address. On Thursday, Mr. Kim received Mr. Persson for three and a half hours more. The E.U. team visit was to take place earlier. Mr. Kim Jong Il is very adept at using any international exposure to advantage. In this specific case, it would not have been difficult to find out the scheduled public engagements of the U.S. President, find out that the obvious thrust of a speech on global security would be missile defence and then rearrange the E.U. visit to finesse Mr. Bush.

Mr. Bush has frequently cited North Korea as one of the ``rogue States'' on which he would rest his pretext to develop a missile defence scheme. But the moratorium can also be seen by Washington DC as a positive sign. Mr. Persson said Mr. Kim Jong Il had used the term ``during that period we will wait and see,'' while informing him about the moratorium.

In another clever holding action, Mr. Kim Jong Il has conditioned the timing of his inter-Korean summit with Mr. Kim Dae-jung on the Bush administration's policy review on North Korea. Mr. Bush's conservative dominant holdovers have so far tried to hold back Mr. Kim Dae-jung from advancing the engagement policy with the North. The first summit took place in the North in June 2000. Both leaders agreed to meet in 2001.

In a possibly related development, the police in Tokyo's Narita Airport detained a man on Tuesday on suspicion of illegal entry on a flight from Singapore. Bearing a forged Dominican Republic passport, police are trying to confirm suspicions that he is the first son of the North Korean leader, Mr. Kim. Kyodo quoted police as saying that it is a ``high possibility'' he may be Mr. Kim Jong-nam, believed to be 29 years of age. One T.V. station cited the man as denying he was Mr. Kim Jong Il's son.

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Section  : International
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