By Banzay on 06:23
Filed Under: Carter, Jimmy
SEOUL, South Korea — Former President Jimmy Carter arrived in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Wednesday on a mission to win the release of an American held prisoner in the North, its state-run media reported. Analysts in Seoul said Mr. Carter, on his second trip to Pyongyang, would also try to help break an impasse in relations between the United States and North Korea.Mr. Carter was greeted at Pyongyang airport by Kim Kye-gwan, a senior North Korean diplomat, according to the North’s official news agency, KCNA. Mr. Kim is North Korea’s main envoy to the six-nation talks on ending its nuclear weapons program. The talks have been stalled for more than two years.South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported earlier that Mr. Carter, 85, was traveling with his wife on a private jet.Officially, Washington described his trip as a private humanitarian mission to secure the release of Aijalon Mahli Gomes, an American from Boston who was sentenced in April to eight years of hard labor and fined $700,000 for illegally entering the North. But Mr. Carter’s trip loomed large because of his track record of helping defuse the first Korean nuclear crisis more than 16 years ago.In 1994, Mr. Carter visited Pyongyang and met with President Kim Il-sung, the late father of the current leader, Kim Jong-il. His trip helped restart nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang, which led to a disarmament deal later that year. He also brokered a summit meeting between the two Koreas that ultimately did not happen because Kim Il-sung died of heart failure later that year.Mr. Carter is the second former American president to visit Pyongyang in a year. Analysts said the North’s government would use his visit to elevate the status of Kim Jong-il in domestic propaganda and to reach out to Washington for bilateral talks. Last August, Bill Clinton met Mr. Kim there and returned with two United States journalists who had been held for five months for illegally entering the country.Mr. Carter’s trip came after a further chill in the frosty ties between Washington and Pyongyang. In recent months, tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula have grown as the United States and South Korea accused North Korea of torpedoing a South Korean warship in March. The sinking of the ship, the Cheonan, claimed the lives of 46 South Korean sailors.The two allies pushed for financial penalties against the North and conducted joint military drills in a show of solidarity. The North denied involvement in the sinking and vowed to retaliate against what it called “warmongering” by Washington and Seoul.When Mr. Gomes entered North Korea in January, it gave Pyongyang a negotiating chip. Last month, North Korea said he tried to kill himself out of “frustration with the U.S. government’s failure to free him.”Mr. Gomes, 30, is believed to have entered North Korea to show support for Robert Park, a fellow Christian from the United States who crossed into North Korea from China last December to call attention to the dismal conditions at the North’s prison camps. Mr. Park was expelled from North Korea after about 40 days.Kim Sung-han, a North Korea expert at Korea University in Seoul, noted that Kim Jong-il sent his top nuclear negotiator to receive Mr. Carter.“I don’t think Mr. Carter’s trip will lead to an immediate resumption of six-party talks,” Mr. Kim said. “But President Carter will probe the North Koreans’ thoughts, and the North Koreans will probe Mr. Carter’s ideas on how to restart diplomacy with Washington.”Mr. Carter has been a contentious figure among South Korean conservatives. While in office, he irked them by drastically reducing the number of United States troops based in South Korea. Like his 1994 visit, his latest trip to Pyongyang raised concern in Seoul.“Carter is idealistic, not realistic when it comes to North Korea,” said Hong Kwan-hee, head of the Institute for Security Strategy in Seoul. “North Korea always has tried to use prominent Americans, preferably Democrats, as a medium to engage the United States and drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington.”“At home, they tell their people that the former U.S. president came to pay respect to their general,” Mr. Hong said.North Korea has recently expressed willingness to return to six-party talks in a move Seoul believed was aimed at deflecting international pressure resulting from the sinking of the Cheonan. China, the North’s main ally, also began moving to reconvene the talks.Both Washington and Seoul insist that they would not resume six-nation talks until they are convinced that North Korea was ready to give up its nuclear weapons. They accused North Korea of having used the talks to fend off international sanctions and win aid.Mr. Carter’s 1994 trip came at the height of crisis triggered by North Korea’s nuclear program. It paved the way for a deal later that year in which North Korea pledged to give up its nuclear program in return for aid. But it eventually fell apart around 2002 as Washington accused the North of running a secret uranium enrichment program, touching off a new nuclear standoff.
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