csua.org/u/b9d -> www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-chat3mar03,0,8347.story?coll=la-home-world
By Barbara Demick, Times Staff Writer BEIJING He arrived at the entrance to a North Korean government-owned r estaurant and karaoke club here in the Chinese capital with a handshake and a request. This North Korean, an affable man in his late 50s who spent much of his c areer as a diplomat in Europe, has been assigned to help his communist c ountry attract foreign investment. With the US and other countries com plaining about North Korea's nuclear weapons program and its human right s record, it's a difficult task, he admitted.
Click Here advertisement "There's never been a positive article about North Korea, not one," he sa id. "We're portrayed as monsters, inhuman, Dracula with horns on our h eads." So, in an effort to clear up misunderstandings, he expounded on the North Korean view of the world in an informal conversation that began one nig ht this week over beer as North Korean waitresses sang Celine Dion in th e karaoke restaurant, and resumed the next day over coffee. The North Korean, dressed in a cranberry-colored flannel shirt and cordur oy trousers, described himself as a businessman with close ties to the g overnment. He said he did not want to be quoted by name because his pers pective was personal, not official. Because North Koreans seldom talk to US media organizations, his comments offered rare insight into the vi ew from the other side of the geopolitical divide. He said better relations with the United States were key to turning aroun d his nation's economy, which has nearly ground to a halt over the last decade amid famine, the collapse of industry and severe electricity shor tages. "For basic life, we can live without America, but we can live bet ter with" it, he said. Yet he voiced strong enthusiasm for his country's recent announcement tha t it had developed nuclear weapons. The declaration, which jarred US o fficials, was not intended as a threat, he said, but merely a way to adv ance negotiations. "Now that we are members of the nuclear club, we can start talking on an equal footing. "This was the right thing to do, to declare ourselves a nuclear power. Th e US had been talking not only about economic sanctions, but regime ch ange," the businessman said. "We can't just sit there waiting for them t o do something. The North Koreans said they were keenly attentive to the language used by Bush administration officials in regard to their country. They were rel ieved that in this year's State of the Union address the president didn' t again characterize North Korea as part of an "axis of evil," as he did in 2002. But they were greatly offended that Secretary of State Condole ezza Rice called North Korea an "outpost of tyranny" during her confirma tion hearings. We expected some clear-cut positive change," the North Korean said. "Instead, Condoleezz a Rice immediately committed the mistake of calling us an outpost of tyr anny. North Koreans are most sensitive when they hear that kind of remar k" He believes that Americans have the wrongheaded notion that North Koreas are unhappy with the system of government under Kim Jong Il. He also said that US criticism of North Korea's record on human rights was unfair and hypocritical. In its annual human rights report on Monday , the State Department characterized North Korea's behavior as "extremel y poor." It said 150,000 to 200,000 people were being held in detention camps for political reasons and that there continued to be reports of ex trajudicial killings. "Is there any country where there is a 100% guarantee of human rights? Ce rtainly not the United States," the businessman said. Maybe these people are not political prisoners but social agitators." While Westerners tend to stress the rights of the individual, he said, "w e have chosen collective human rights as a nation. We should have food, shelter, security rather than chaos and vandalism. The North Korean admitted that "it is no secret that we have economic pro blems," and he said North Koreans were themselves largely to blame becau se they let their industry become too dependent on the socialist bloc co untries. After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, trade fell sharply. But he faulted the United States for the collapse of a 1994 pact under wh ich North Korea was supposed to get energy assistance in return for free zing its nuclear program. The agreement fell apart after Washington accu sed North Korea in 2002 of cheating on the deal, and the US and its al lies suspended deliveries of fuel oil. We have only six hours a day," said the N orth Korean, who lives in an apartment in a choice neighborhood of Pyong yang, the capital. "When you are watching a movie on TV, there might be a nice love scene and then suddenly the power is out. He said as North Korea worked to change its state-run economy, it would l ook to China as an example and seek to change gradually. He didn't use t he word "reform" anathema to some trained under the socialist system. "We will try to learn from China's successes and fail ures." As for international negotiations aimed at getting North Korea to give up its nuclear arms program, he said he thought Pyongyang would probably s how up at the next round of talks. But his country would prefer to negot iate directly with the United States, he said, rather than in six-party discussions that also include China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. He said the Americans' insistence on including six countries had caused u ndue complications. "If we sort out the problems with America, everything else will fall into place. The problems with Japan can easily be sorted out," he said. The North Korean criticized some Japanese politicians' efforts to link th e nuclear talks to the question of Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. "This was something done by a few overly enthusiastic people long ago," h e said.
are using it for political purposes and destroy ing the interests of millions of people." The most important point the North Korean said he wanted to convey in the conversation was that his nation was a place just like any other.
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