February 15, 2008 Kim Jong Il snubbed Christopher Hill, says the World Tribune. According to reports, Kim refused to personally accept George W. Bush’s letter, sent via Hill, at the end of last year. Instead, Hill was forced to deliver the letter to North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun. Despite this, Hill remains upbeat about the future of the Six-Party Talks, telling a Senate committee:
“I don’t want to make bets about a game that I’m playing in, but we have reason to believe that we can make progress. And while we do, we are not at all happy that we’ve missed our deadline, that is Dec. 31, [but] we believe it’s worth continuing to work on this.”
Meanwhile, ex-Defense Secretary William J. Perry, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea Donald Gregg and former deputy assistant secretary of state Evans Revere will head to Pyongyang for the upcoming New York Philharmonic Concert. The trio is expected to meet, in an unofficial capacity, with North Korean Nuclear negotiator Kim Gye Gwan. On what he plans to relay to Kim Gye Gwan, Gregg told Bloomberg:
“I will tell them that they should not wait,” he said in an interview today. Gregg said he will say, “You need to take full advantage of what the Bush administration is now urging you to do, and move quickly on it.”
Gregg, a long-time Korea watcher and chairman of the New York-based Korea society is even more optimistic than Hill, comparing the philharmonic’s visit to Nixon’s Ping-Pong Diplomacy with China:
“I call it a 16-inch broadside of soft power fired by the Philharmonic,” he said.
Michael Breen chimed in as well, telling Bloomberg:
“My guess is that the North Koreans are planning to sit out the Bush administration and wait to deal with President Obama…Musical diplomacy and entreaties by U.S. visitors later this month won’t dissuade them, unless it is accompanied by a surprise visit by Ms. Rice.”
As for a potential Rice visit, there is still no official word, but DongA Ilbo speculates that such a visit is “likely.”
All this on the heels of the one-year anniversary of the February 13th Agreement, as Joshua at OneFreeKorea points out. What does the International Community have to show for its efforts? I’ll let South Korean envoy Chun Young-Woo answer that:
“The issue of declaration is a difficult one in its essence… it would take time and efforts as (the North) has to change its previous claims…Though it is being delayed, energy aid will be provided to the North to ensure the North would not worry (via IHT)
