U.S. WEIGHS EASING OF STRAINS WITH NORTH KOREA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP05T02051R000200350059-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 12, 2011
• Sequence Number: 59
• Publication Date: October 16, 1988
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/12 : CIA-RDP05TO2051 R000200350059-7
SIiI? GI ON POST
N",'; YORK TIMES
rr STREET J.
TINES
DATE I (o D c.1r.-
STAT
U.S. Weighs Easing of Strains With North Korea
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 - The
United States is expected to take some
modest but symbolically important
steps toward opening, diplomatic and
trade contacts with North Korea as
proposed by Seoul, State Department
officials said today.
Although the officials emphasized
that no final decision has been made,
trey indicated that. President Reagan
is likely to give the South Korean Presi-
dent, Roh Tae Woo, some assurances of
the Administration's willingness to
make a limited overture to the Govern-
ment of Pyongyang when the two lead-
11
ers meet briefly in Washington on
Thursday.
It is unclear when the Administra-
tion will announce its decision.
Among the steps under active consid-
eration are the resumption of limited
diplomatic? contact between United
States and North Korean officials,
relaxation of the visa restriction on
North Korean nationals and encour-
agemegt of unofficial exchanges.
The Administration is also examin-
ing what one official called "a more
lenient.approach" to the Trading With
the Enemy Act, which prohibits trade
with "enemy" countries and has been
applied to North Korea. The Adminis-
tration may extend certain exemptions,
under the act to North Korea, such as
the delivery of "humanitarian items"
such as food and medicine.
At' this time, however, the United
States is not expected to remove North
Korea from the State Department's list
of countries that support terrorism.
Nor is there any intention of lifting dec-
ades-old trade sanctions.
'Pressing Us to Do Something'
"South-Korea has been pressing us to
do something to help draw the North
out of its isolation and we're looking at
what we might do," one State Depart-
ment official said. "It's fair to say that
we'lI be taking some steps in close north by enlisting the support of other
coordination with South Korea in the count ries and of the United Nations.
wake of Roh's visit."
In the spring of 1987 the United
States initiated a policy of allowing
meetings between American and North
Korean diplomats and slightly eased
visa restrictions on North Koreans
coming to the United States. But after
the North Korean bombing of a Korean
Air Lines jet late last year in which all
115 people were killed, the initiative
was canceled and North Korea was
added to the terrorism list.
Japan also imposed punitive sanc-
tions after the bombing, which it lifted
in September, just before the opening
of the Olympic Games.
The Administration's move is in-
tended to be a positives response to Mr.
Roh's three-month-old campaign to
ease tensions with his neighbor to the
North Koreans Set Conditions
Special to The New York Times
TOKYO, Oct. 15 - North Korean off i-
cials said today that they welcomed a
recent proposal by President Roh for a
summit meeting in Pyongyang with
their leader, Kim 11 Sung. But they said
Mr. Roh could not come until legisla-
tors and military leaders from both na-
tions meet and the South revises anti-
Communist laws.
The Korean Central News Agency,
North Korea's official press service,
said in a broadcast monitored in Tokyo
that Mr. Roh's proposal, made in a
speech to the South Korean legislature
on Oct. 4, "deserves welcome."
Mr. Roh, responding to Mr. Kim's
Sept. 8 invitation to a summit meeting,
said he would travel to Pyongyang and
talk without any conditions. But Mr.
Kim had called on the South to first
sign a nonaggression pact and promise
to withdraw American troops from
South Korea.
Before a summit meeting could take
place, the North Korean press agency
quoted North Korean officials as say-
ing, Seoul must take several steps.
"An. early convocation of a North-
South joint parliamentary meeting will
be an important occasion in helping ar-
range . N)rth-South top-level talks,"
said a statement issued in Pyongyang
on Friday.
North Korea also said the South must
abolish its strict national security law
and end its ban on communism.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/12 : CIA-RDP05TO2051 R000200350059-7