WASHINGTON — President Bush’s personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il urging him to fully disclose his nuclear programs by year’s end is a turnabout for a president who has labeled the communist regime part of an “axis of evil.”
The Bush administration sought to play down the diplomatic significance of the president’s Saturday letter to Kim — his first ever to the reclusive North Korean leader. Yet, it reflected how U.S. policy has shifted from the days when Bush shunned the dictator.
The letter might sate Kim’s craving to be recognized by the U.S. as a player on the world stage. However, White House press secretary Dana Perino said it was intended to be a “reminder” to North Korea that it has pledged to provide — by the end of the month — a complete and accurate disclosure of its nuclear programs.
The United States is looking for a complete declaration of North Korea’s nuclear facilities, materials and programs and also insists that it address any role that the North Koreans have played in spreading nuclear technology or know-how to others.
Bush sent similar letters Saturday to the leaders of Russia, China, Japan and South Korea — the other nations involved in the six-party nuclear talks — to reiterate his desire to resolve the nuclear standoff. He also spoke about the issue on the phone Thursday with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Under the watchful eye of U.S. experts, North Korea started disabling its plutonium-producing reactor at Yongbyon, which was shut down in July, and two other facilities last month.
Neither the White House nor the State Department would release the letters or disclose their content.
A U.S. official told The Associated Press that the letter to North Korea refers to a need to resolve three main sticking points: the exact amount of weapons-grade nuclear material the North produced, the number of warheads it built and whether and how North Korea may have passed nuclear material or knowledge to others.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe details of the delicate diplomacy, said the letter underscored Bush’s desire to resolve the nuclear dispute.
Derek Mitchell, an Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the letter is evidence that U.S. policy toward North Korea has changed “at least 150 degrees” from early in the Bush administration.
“Kim Jong-Il is someone whom Bush famously loathed. He’s quoted as saying he loathes Kim Jong-Il and called him a pygmy, and the attitude was that you don’t talk to evil, you end it,” Mitchell said. “That Bush would, at this point, directly contact — send a personal letter to Kim Jong-Il — is a remarkable turnaround from that.”
Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, warned against placing too much significance on the direct correspondence.
“I think a presidential letter is a fairly restrained version of direct communication and appropriate to the stage of the negotiations,” he said. “I think it’s better for this sort of letter to be written than for the president to jump on a plane to Pyongyang.”
