Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has enough reasons to grab the attention of the international community as he is on his second trip to North Korea. His mission is to win the release of an American imprisoned for illegally entering the communist state. There are cautious expectations that Carter might work to help ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
The U.S. neither confirmed nor denied Carter’s visit not to have a negative impact on his private humanitarian mission. A senior State Department official only said, ``We will have more to say if and when such a mission is completed.” At stake is the freedom of Aijalon Mahli Gomes who was detained Jan. 25 after entering the North. In April, he was sentenced to an eight-year prison term and a $700,000 fine.
Carter’s trip is reminiscent of a visit to the isolated North by another former U.S. president, Bill Clinton, in August 2009. He succeeded in gaining the freedom of two female American journalists who were detained for illegal entry into the North. Clinton met North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and discuss issues related to ties between the two countries. His humanitarian mission led to the first high-level contact between Washington and Pyongyang under the Obama administration.
Some pundits express cautious optimism that Carter might play a role similar to that of Clinton. They also recall Carter’s 1994 landmark visit to Pyongyang which helped make a breakthrough to the first North Korean nuclear crisis. His meeting with then-President Kim Il-sung of the North led to the signing of the Geneva Agreed Framework that called for the scrapping of the North’s nuclear program in return for massive energy aid.
But, Carter’s second trip might send a wrong signal to Pyongyang when South Korea and the U.S. are working together to prevent the North’s further provocation in the wake of its sinking of the South’s warship Cheonan on March 26. The North has actually requested Carter’s visit for the release of Gomes. And the Kim Jong-il regime may use his trip as a propaganda tool to tighten its grip on power.
His visit could also be used as the North’s ploy to shirk its responsibility for the naval incident. The U.S. plans to impose new sanctions against the North for the ship attack that killed 46 sailors. And China’s chief nuclear envoy, Wu Dawei, will arrive in Seoul on Thursday to push for the resumption of the six-party denuclearization talks after traveling to Pyongyang last week.
The U.S. and South Korea see it is premature to go back to the multinational talks because the North has refused to apologize for the naval tragedy and to promise to prevent a recurrence. Pyongyang should first show its genuine intent of denuclearization. Seoul and Washington should not play into the hands of Pyongyang. We are sure that Carter himself knows this better than anyone else.