N.K. ramps up diplomacy amid hints of change

North Korea is stepping up diplomatic efforts to induce more assistance and investment critical to rejuvenating its antiquated economy and underpinning the new leadership’s power base.

International sanctions against its missile and nuclear programs have stalled foreign aid and derailed cross-border economic cooperation.

In recent months, however, positive signs have been detected in the North from Kim Jong-un’s recent public appearances and economic guidelines.

Optimists say the moves reflect his willingness to end the regime’s long-held tradition of secrecy, trounce poverty and prop up the people’s livelihoods. 

With the economy in need, the Swiss-educated leader is seen to be expanding his diplomatic forays ― whether under the table or in public. His top aides are traveling in China, resuming talks with Japan and reportedly maintaining dialogue with the U.S. via an unofficial channel.

“Kim is exposing the tint of his own style of politics as (the transition to) his succession is nearing an end since the death of his father, Kim Jong-il,” said Chin Hee-gwan, a unification professor at Inje University in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province.

“To cement his power base, it’s important to improve relations with other countries and draw support from them. The current dialogues with the U.S., China and Japan don’t appear to be a token gesture. It should connote Kim’s efforts to achieve good results.”

Yoo Ho-yeol, a North Korea studies professor at Korea University in Seoul, agreed: “Kim is on course for establishing leadership and the internal power structure. He has to build an economic bedrock to secure the system’s legitimacy and maintain his reign, for which outside assistance is inevitable.”

Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s powerful uncle and vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, met with Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming in Beijing on Tuesday. They agreed to speed up the development of joint economic zones in the North and expand cooperation in technology, agriculture, infrastructure and other key sectors.

Jang’s trip comes 10 days after Kim met with Wang Jiarui, chief of the Communist Party’s international affairs bureau, in Pyongyang, marking his official diplomatic debut since he took power in December.

In another sign of a thaw, Pyongyang and Tokyo are set to hold the first government-level talks in four years in Beijing later this month. It comes after the two countries’ Red Cross officials discussed the repatriation of remains of Japanese nationals during its occupation of the peninsula.

Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba said the meeting would be held strictly from a “humanitarian standpoint” and limited to the remains of the Japanese.

However, experts forecast that in a positive case scenario, the two sides may reach an agreement for a slight easing of Japan’s sanctions that are even tougher than the U.N. bans, or the restoration of a regular dialogue outlet. 

Despite the thorn in relations, news reports emerged last week that senior North Korean and U.S. diplomats had a meeting in New York in July. But sources said there was no breakthrough made between Clifford Hart, Washington’s special envoy for the six-party talks, and Han Song-ryol, Pyongyang’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations.

Joel Wit, a former State Department official and current fellow at the U.S.-Korea Institute at John Hopkins University, attended another informal meeting in Singapore from July 31 to Aug. 2. Among the six North Korean participants was Choi Seon-hui, director general of the American Affairs Bureau of the Foreign Ministry.

Meanwhile, Pyongyang effectively rejected calls from the South’s Red Cross to open talks on Aug. 17 for a fresh round of reunions for the families displaced by the Korean War. The North put forward preconditions ― an end to economic sanctions and resumption of tourism to Mount Geumgang ― which Seoul sees as unlikely for now.

“He’s in fact in urgent need of economic cooperation with the South but knows that there is a limit to what he can do with the current administration. Until the next one sets out, he can buy time and pile tacit pressure on the forthcoming government by keeping the relations strained rather than seeking a breakthrough right now,” Yoo told The Korea Herald.

The international community will be closely watching developments under the budding leadership. At stake is a stepping stone for the North’s return to multinational denuclearization talks, from which it walked away in December 2008.

Tensions still linger surrounding the peninsula. Recent satellite images indicate that the communist state may complete the construction of a new light-water reactor in Yongbyon by 2013, stoking concerns over a possible diversion to military applications. The photos were analyzed by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.

“They have a choice now. They can open their country, come back into compliance, and live in a place that respects human rights, respects the needs of their people, or they can keep doing what they’ve been doing, and continue to face isolation and continue to face misery,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told a media briefing on Tuesday.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)