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Conference postponed as Kim in poor health
Source: Agencies |
September 14, 2010, Tuesday
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NORTH Korea's ruling party has delayed the start of a rare conference due to leader Kim Jong-Il's health, but his condition is not serious enough to cancel the meeting, South Korean television reported yesterday.
The Workers' Party conference, bringing together the state's ruling elite for the first time in 30 years, was called to pick a new leadership. Kim's youngest son, Kim Jong-un, will likely be given an official title at the conference.
The meeting had been due to start anytime between September 1-15.
With North and South Korea still technically at war, having only signed an armistice in 1953, regional powers are anxious to know what changes are afoot and who will command the nearly 1.2 million troops and another 7.7 million in the reserves.
Kim, 68, is suspected of having a stroke in 2008, and failed to appear in public for months until 2009.
South Korea's YTN television cited an intelligence official in Seoul as saying he was aware that Kim's health had worsened after a five-day trip to China last month.
The source said Kim's health concerns were not serious enough to warrant canceling the meeting, which would open soon.
Tensions on the peninsula, meanwhile, are showing signs of easing, with Seoul and Pyongyang making more conciliatory gestures toward each other.
Yesterday, the South announced its biggest aid package to its impoverished neighbor in more than two years, and proposed holding talks on reunions of families separated by war.
The apparent thaw has prompted the start of shuttle diplomacy between regional nuclear envoys, fueling speculation of a resumption in aid-for-disarmament talks.
Tensions rose to their highest level in years in March with the sinking of a South Korean warship, which Seoul and Washington blame on the North. Pyongyang denies any role.
Pyongyang says it wants to return to nuclear disarmament talks, which have been in limbo since 2008 when the North walked out and said discussions were finished.
Washington's point man on North Korean affairs, Stephen Bosworth, met South Korean officials yesterday on the first leg of a trip amid a push by China to restart talks.
Bosworth said Washington would continue its strategy of dialogue and negotiation with North Korea, while at the same time enforcing new sanctions.
"I would stress we are not setting any timetables," he said. "We are not interested in talking just for the sake of talking with the North Koreans.
"We look for North Korea's attitude to be expressed through its actions, not simply through its rhetoric."
The Workers' Party conference, bringing together the state's ruling elite for the first time in 30 years, was called to pick a new leadership. Kim's youngest son, Kim Jong-un, will likely be given an official title at the conference.
The meeting had been due to start anytime between September 1-15.
With North and South Korea still technically at war, having only signed an armistice in 1953, regional powers are anxious to know what changes are afoot and who will command the nearly 1.2 million troops and another 7.7 million in the reserves.
Kim, 68, is suspected of having a stroke in 2008, and failed to appear in public for months until 2009.
South Korea's YTN television cited an intelligence official in Seoul as saying he was aware that Kim's health had worsened after a five-day trip to China last month.
The source said Kim's health concerns were not serious enough to warrant canceling the meeting, which would open soon.
Tensions on the peninsula, meanwhile, are showing signs of easing, with Seoul and Pyongyang making more conciliatory gestures toward each other.
Yesterday, the South announced its biggest aid package to its impoverished neighbor in more than two years, and proposed holding talks on reunions of families separated by war.
The apparent thaw has prompted the start of shuttle diplomacy between regional nuclear envoys, fueling speculation of a resumption in aid-for-disarmament talks.
Tensions rose to their highest level in years in March with the sinking of a South Korean warship, which Seoul and Washington blame on the North. Pyongyang denies any role.
Pyongyang says it wants to return to nuclear disarmament talks, which have been in limbo since 2008 when the North walked out and said discussions were finished.
Washington's point man on North Korean affairs, Stephen Bosworth, met South Korean officials yesterday on the first leg of a trip amid a push by China to restart talks.
Bosworth said Washington would continue its strategy of dialogue and negotiation with North Korea, while at the same time enforcing new sanctions.
"I would stress we are not setting any timetables," he said. "We are not interested in talking just for the sake of talking with the North Koreans.
"We look for North Korea's attitude to be expressed through its actions, not simply through its rhetoric."
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