AFP:Food and dialogue with US if N.Korea halts missile test

[bich dao <daotb@yahoo.com>]

AUG 29 1999

Food and dialogue with US if N. Korea halts missile test

SEOUL -- Washington will offer food aid to North Korea and conduct
bilateral ministerial talks with the Stalinist country on the condition
that it abandons suspected plans to test-fire a new missile, it was
reported yesterday. 

The offer would be made when the two countries resumed talks in Berlin
next month on improving bilateral ties, the JoongAng Daily reported,
quoting an unidentified South Korean government official. 

It said US special envoy Charles Kartman would meet North Korea's
Vice-Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan next month and they would focus their
talks on proposals made by US troubleshooter William Perry during a May
visit to Pyongyang. 

Mr Perry, a former defence secretary appointed by President Bill Clinton
to draft a report on Washington's future policy towards North Korea, had
offered economic and political benefits in return for an end to the
North's suspected nuclear-weapons programme and other military threats. 

The proposal suggested that the Berlin bilateral talks be upgraded to
ministerial level and that Washington provide surplus agricultural
products to the North. 

A proposal allowing Korean descendants to invest in the North had also
been mooted, the official said. 

Mr Kartman and Mr Kim met earlier this month in Geneva at the end of
four-party talks between China, the US and the two Koreas. 

Pyongyang has hinted that it is ready to negotiate with the United
States over its plans to launch a new long-range missile which could hit
parts of the US mainland. 

Tensions have been running high over the North's reported plans to
test-fire the advanced ballistic missile -- the Taepodong II.  --AFP

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