U.S., N. Korea may set up liaison offices

Jo Myong-Rok, first vice chairman of the North Korean Defense Commission, and Kang Sok-Ju, vice foreign minister, accompanied by an entourage of about 15, has embarked on a visit to the United States. The team flew into San Francisco aboard United Airlines flight 802 Sunday afternoon, about 5 a.m. Oct. 9 Korea Standard Time.

Jo, special envoy of North Korean Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-Il, is the highest North Korean official ever to visit the United States. He is the de facto second in command in the North Korean hierarchy.

Diplomatic sources in Washington, D.C., say that his U.S. visit is expected to produce positive results, commensurate with his status and influence in North Korea.

Though topics to be raised at the projected talks with the U.S. government have yet to be decided, their discussions will include a wide spectrum of mutual concerns between the two nations, the sources predicted.

Accordingly, expected to be discussed are among others, the question of removing Pyongyang from the list of terrorism-sponsoring states, suspension of test-firing of the North Korean missiles and their sales, securing transparency in the North's nuclear freeze, the installation of liaison offices in each other country, as agreed in 1994, and the replacement of the 1953 Armistice Agreement with a peace pact.

Removal of North Korea from the terrorism list is not a function of Washington's political decision but a legal problem. The diplomatic sources said that Washington conveyed its position that the Japanese Red Army hijackers of a Japanese airliner, the Yodo flight, should not be protected any longer and that Pyongyang came up with a positive response. They forecast that the nations concerned including Japan are expected to reach a consensus on the particular question.

Meanwhile, South Korea, the United States and Japan held a meeting of the Trilateral Coordination and Oversight Group (TCOG) Monday and discussed matters related to Jo Myong-Rok's visit to Washington. The meeting was attended by Deputy Foreign Minister Jang Jai-Ryong, State Department's coordinator for North Korea Wendy Sherman, and Japan's deputy vice foreign minister Yukio Takeuchi.

In the meeting, following the review of the developments in the relations between North Korea and the three nations, they shared the view that the inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation is the mainstay in the improvements of relations between the North and the United States and Japan, as well as security and peace on the Korean peninsula, agreeing on the maintenance of close trilateral collaboration in the promotion of the inter-Korean policies.