South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Friday that Washington has proposed setting up a liaison office in Pyongyang. If accurate, the offer would establish the first permanent and direct diplomatic interaction between the two countries.
| Very bad idea. We want the Norks to implode gently. |
The offer was apparently part of a letter hand carried to Pyongyang earlier this month by U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth. Bosworth refused to acknowledge the existence of such a letter while here in Seoul following his trip. The South Korean media report cites diplomatic sources in China.
Koh Yoo-hwan, a senior North Korea scholar at Seoul's Donguk University, says such an office could be beneficial to both sides. He says a permanent liaison office would give the United States and North Korea an opportunity for consistent dialogue on practical issues, such as an eventual peace treaty to end the 1950s Korean war, or ending the North's nuclear weapons programs.
|