[USFK Forums] N. Korean leader invited to visit Indonesia [Yonhap]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Thursday, February 9, 2006

N. Korean leader invited to visit Indonesia

2006/02/09 10:44
By Lee Chi-dong

SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Yonhap) -- Indonesia has formally invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to visit Jakarta as part of its efforts to strengthen bilateral ties and help diffuse tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, a visiting Indonesian official said on Thursday.

Nana Sutresna, a special envoy to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, is on a trip to Seoul that began Tuesday after a four-day trip to North Korea.

Asked whether he delivered a formal invitation to the North's leader Kim Jong-il, the official said yes, although he delivered it indirectly, as he failed to meet with Kim.

As to the date for Kim's trip to Indonesia, Sutresna said that it would be "at a time convenient to both."

If realized, it would be the second trip there by the North's reclusive leader. In 1965, Kim accompanied his father Kim Il-sung, the communist nation's founding leader, to Indonesia.

Sutresna was questioned by reporters at the Foreign Ministry building in central Seoul on his way to the office of Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon.

The envoy briefed Ban on his visit to Pyongyang in a closed-door meeting.

He also expressed the hope of meeting with President Roh Moo-hyun, saying he had a message to deliver from the Indonesian president.

Media reports said Sutresna's Pyongyang trip was partly aimed
at having inter-Korean military talks held in his country. But he
played down the reports, saying he had general discussions on the issue in the North.

Indonesia has expressed its willingness to provide a venue for
defense-minister-level talks between the two Koreas.

Sutresna was cautiously optimistic about the talks' feasibility.

"That has to bee seen...because in the North they promised to consider this very seriously," he said.

The defense chiefs of the two Koreas last met on South Korea's
Jeju Island in 2004. North Korea agreed at that time to host the
next meeting, but has failed to keep the promise, citing recurring
tension on the Korean Peninsula.

Talking to the Indonesian presidential envoy, Seoul's foreign minister said he appreciated Jakarta's initiative to help resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis.

North Korea has refused to return to the six-way talks on its nuclear weapons that also include the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, using Washington's financial sanctions on it as a pretext.

Sutresna is to fly back to Indonesia on Saturday.

lcd@yna.co.kr


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