December 06, 2007

Bush Pens Letter To Kim Jong Il

In an unusually personal move, President Bush sent North Korean leader Kim Jong Il a letter, according to a Pyongyang news agency.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill reportedly handed over the letter yesterday during a meeting with North Korean diplomats. Hill was in China to give a briefing on his three-day visit to the region to discuss Pyongyang's continued uranium enrichment and a nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. After inspecting the reactor complex yesterday, Hill told reporters that its dismantling is on track. U.S. inspectors have been overseeing work on the plant, which North Korea agreed to shut down earlier this year.

Contents of the letter were not disclosed, but Korea expert Noriyuki Suzuki speculated in Reuters reports that it "was aimed at backing what Christopher Hill had been telling to the North Koreans in the past negotiations... The letter must contain the basic U.S. stance that Washington is ready to drop North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, improve relations and normalize diplomatic relations with North Korea on condition that the North disable and abandon its nuclear weapons programs."

Posted at 8:43 AM
Posted to: Asia, North Korea
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