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Obama woos Kim with personal letter
Source: Agencies |
December 17, 2009, Thursday
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UNITED States President Barack Obama has written a personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il as part of an intense effort to draw the nation back to nuclear disarmament talks, a senior State Department official said.
The letter was delivered to North Korean officials last week by Obama's special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, during a visit to Pyongyang aimed at restarting the stalled negotiations, the official said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the diplomacy, would not describe the contents of the letter but said they fit with Bosworth's general message.
"The North Koreans have a choice: continued and further isolation or benefits for returning to the six-party talks and dismantling their nuclear weapons program," the official said on Tuesday.
Bosworth's trip did not include a meeting with Kim.
Disarmament talks
The existence of the letter has been closely held, with the administration insisting to its partners in disarmament talks with North Korea that it not be publicly discussed, according to The Washington Post, which first reported on Tuesday night that the letter had been delivered.
Bosworth's talks were the Obama administration's first high-level contact with North Korea.
He said after leaving the North last Thursday that the two sides reached a "common understanding" on the need to restart the nuclear negotiations, which involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, the US and Russia. The six-party talks are aimed at the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
After returning to Washington from Moscow, Bosworth held closed-door talks with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Former US presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton also sent personal letters to Kim, although not as early in their terms as did Obama.
Bush wrote Kim in December 2007, raising the possibility of normalized relations if the North Korean leader fully disclosed his nuclear programs by year's end.
The letter was delivered to North Korean officials last week by Obama's special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, during a visit to Pyongyang aimed at restarting the stalled negotiations, the official said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the diplomacy, would not describe the contents of the letter but said they fit with Bosworth's general message.
"The North Koreans have a choice: continued and further isolation or benefits for returning to the six-party talks and dismantling their nuclear weapons program," the official said on Tuesday.
Bosworth's trip did not include a meeting with Kim.
Disarmament talks
The existence of the letter has been closely held, with the administration insisting to its partners in disarmament talks with North Korea that it not be publicly discussed, according to The Washington Post, which first reported on Tuesday night that the letter had been delivered.
Bosworth's talks were the Obama administration's first high-level contact with North Korea.
He said after leaving the North last Thursday that the two sides reached a "common understanding" on the need to restart the nuclear negotiations, which involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, the US and Russia. The six-party talks are aimed at the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
After returning to Washington from Moscow, Bosworth held closed-door talks with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Former US presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton also sent personal letters to Kim, although not as early in their terms as did Obama.
Bush wrote Kim in December 2007, raising the possibility of normalized relations if the North Korean leader fully disclosed his nuclear programs by year's end.
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