Why Kim Jong-il didn’t meet Carter

By Sunny Lee

BEIJING — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s visit to Pyongyang this week turned out to be a non-event partly, if not primarily, because Kim Jong-il didn’t show up.

Most experts expected Kim would meet with Carter’s delegation, which included three other former Western state leaders. All of them are members of “The Elders,” a group of eminent global leaders founded by South African icon Nelson Mandela.

Prior to his departure for Pyongyang, Carter specifically said he hoped to meet with Kim and also his third son and heir, Kim Jong-un. This did not materialize.

Certainly, the expectation for Kim to meet Carter was higher this time because he failed to honor Carter’s previous visit to North Korea last August as Kim was making a rare trip to China at that time.

Although omnipotent in North Korea, Kim is also known to have a “softer side” too. That is, being raised in a Confucian society, he respects age. Even former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung pressed Kim to make concessions during the historic 2000 summit, reminding the North’s leader that he was older. Carter is 87 years old, much older than Kim Jong-il. This makes us more wonder at Kim’s refusal to meet Carter.

The Korea Times turned to experts on the matter, which can also shed light on Pyongyang’s calculations.

Zhao Huji, an expert on Korean affairs at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said, “This was completely off my expectations. I thought Kim Jong-il would meet with Carter. In Pyongyang, Carter met with foreign ministry officials and then also Kim Yong-nam. A possible explanation would be that these meetings didn’t turn out very well. And Kim Jong-il may have felt that there would be no other benefit to meet with Carter.”

Kenneth Quinones, a former U.S. official, who was in charge of North Korean affairs at the State Department during Carter’s visit to North Korea in 1994, pointed out that Carter and three other retired state leaders were religiously motivated, while having little to offer in terms of real political leverage.

“Carter led a group of religious delegates to North Korea. Kim Jong-il may have felt that there was no requirement to meet them. Meeting Kim Yong-nam (the ceremonial leader of the North) is the typical way for North Korea to handle foreign leaders.

“Carter’s visit has no similarity to the 1994 visit. When we arranged his visit, Carter made it very clear that he wanted to meet with Kim Il-sung to discuss the nuclear issue. Clinton agreed with it and I worked on the details at the State Department. This time, discussing political issues was not Carter’s primary purpose.”

Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor of Korean politics and foreign policy at Korea University, noted, “I thought Kim Jong-il would meet Carter’s delegation because this time there were three more former state leaders. Kim may have wanted to avoid some sensitive questions, possibly raised by Carter’s team, such as North Korea’s human rights issues and its poor monitoring of foreign food aid.”

Kim Heung-kyu, a political science professor at Sungshin Women’s University, said, “Unlike in the past, Kim Jong-il no longer sees the need to take advantage of Carter’s visit. Internally in North Korea, Kim can say the country’s international status has been strengthened and there is no need for him to greet personally foreign leaders such as Carter.” (Kim just delivered a ‘written message’ to Carter).

“Externally, North Korea wants to project the image of a country that already owns nuclear weapons. That also means that North Korea is not interested in inter-Korean talks with the stated goal of denuclearization as the South wants.”

“Carter is seen as ‘North Korea-friendly’ by Washington and Seoul. His personal crusade was accordingly frowned on by them. The United States and South Korea also have a different policy posture on North Korea. From China’s perspective, it hoped Carter’s delegation would help communication between North Korea and the outside world. China would have been pleased to see some breakthrough to the current standoff surrounding North Korea’s nuclear issue that would eventually lead to the resumption of the six-party talks,” concluded Cai Jian, professor of Korean studies at Shanghai’s Fudan University.