In the first ever major encounter since Obama's electio as the next U.S. president, North Korean officials and key U.S. foreign policy experts, including Obama’s personal top North Korea policy advisor, had a “friendly” meeting in New York.
Ri Gun, director general for North American affairs at North Korea's foreign ministry, met with Frank Jannuzi, a key foreign policy adviser for Obama on Korea, in a closed-door meeting, organized by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP), Yonhap reported Saturday.
The content of the meeting, which lasted four hours, was kept veiled to the outside, though. “For the last six years, this meeting has been used as a non-official channel for communication between North Korea and the U.S. and it has a principle that the content not be known to the outside. The purpose is to encourage the participants to share honest and free opinions,” an official with NCAFP explained to reporters.
However, the face of the participants seen at the end of the meeting hinted that the meeting went well, said Yonhap.
“Today’s meeting was done in a friendly atmosphere. It was carried out in a cautious yet optimistic atmosphere,” said Donald Zagoria, a professor of international politics at New York's Hunter College, who was a participant of the forum. He added that the meeting was “successful” to a certain degree.
Observers widely believe that the meeting was a venue for each side to “explore” each other. Zagoria said North Koreans "were interested in continuity" in talks with the Obama government.
Presidential-elect Obama has said on several occasions that he is ready to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Recent reports have speculated that Obama may send a special envoy to Pyongyang to make a breakthrough in the six-way talks, which have frequently stalled since first being held in 2003.
The key question now is how Obama, as president, will implement his campaign pledge in reality. “It will be different, depending on who will be appointed to the major posts,” said Donald Gregg, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, who also participated in the meeting.