North Korea ambassador makes rare visit to US Congress (AP) Updated: 2005-10-28 10:07
A North Korean diplomat paid a rare visit to the U.S. Congress on Thursday,
saying his country wanted to improve relations with the United States, in spite
of what he called U.S. hostility.
Han Song Ryol, North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, met
privately with about two dozen lawmakers during his visit, which Republican U.S.
Rep. Curt Weldon described as a "frank exchange with members of both parties."
Han visited the Senate last year, but on Thursday he met primarily with
members of the House of Representatives. A State Department official said that
North Korea's U.N. diplomats are normally limited to travel within a 25-mile (40
kilometer) radius of New York City but that exceptions are occasionally made.
The official said Han's travel request was approved after the department
received assurances that the diplomat wouldn't be involved in any media events.
Rep. Rush Holt, a Democrat, said there was a sense among lawmakers that "the
current state of affairs benefits no one. It is in everyone's interest that we
make progress" in current six-nation talks to persuade North Korea to abandon
its nuclear ambitions.
Those talks, which include diplomats from South Korea, North Korea, the
United States, Russia, China and Japan are expected to resume in early November
in Beijing. North Korea agreed at the last round of talks in September to
abandon nuclear development but then quickly backpedaled on that pledge, saying
it wanted a civilian nuclear reactor.
Some lawmakers have reacted cautiously to the breakthrough in talks, with
conservatives worried that U.S. negotiators have given the North a way to
backtrack or, worse, a way to justify its existing nuclear programs.
While Han didn't speak to reporters at a news conference following his
meeting with lawmakers, he did release a prepared statement that was by turns
conciliatory and combative.
He chastised the United States for its insistence on a "hostile policy toward
DPRK to keep the situation tense as ever," referring to the acronym for North
Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
But he also said that "the peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and
the region depend on how the DPRK-U.S. relations develop. It is not our stand to
remain an enemy of the U.S. forever."
Han defended his country's right to keep a nuclear deterrent in the face of
what he called U.S. threats. Referring to the U.S. insistence that the North
scrap its nuclear programs before receiving further concessions, Han asked, "Who
would lay down his gun simply because he is asked to do so by his opponent while
they are still" engaged in hostilities?
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