hankyoreh

By Kim Oi-hyun, staff reporter

The international affairs secretary for North Korea’s Workers’ Party is setting off on a tour of European countries this week.

The trip by 75-year-old Kang Sok-ju, who oversees foreign policy for North Korea, is being seen as part of an all-out push for a way out of Pyongyang‘s diplomatic isolation.

According to several senior South Korean government officials on Sept. 2, Kang is leaving later this week for a roughly ten-day itinerary that will take him to Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy. Since he is not technically a government official, his trip could take the form of political party or parliamentary interactions in the different countries.

“As we understand it, he’s going to be meeting mainly with parliamentary leaders, including people from the European Parliament,” said one South Korean government official on condition of anonymity.

“These are going to be track-two [civilian] interactions, as opposed to interactions between governments,” the source added.

Some are predicting a possible senior-level meeting with Japan during Kang’s visit to Switzerland from Sept. 11 to 13. The Minister for the Abduction Issue, a Cabinet member under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, will reportedly be in Geneva to attend a Sept. 10 seminar on the issue of Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea.

Kang’s trip is being seen as another example of Pyongyang’s strategy of “branching out” diplomatically. It coincides with negotiations with Tokyo since last May, as well as a Middle East/Africa trip in April, an August tour of Southeast Asia, and visit to the US later this month by Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong.

“At the moment, it looks like North Korea is reaching out to the more accessible countries - not the US, China, or South Korea - to break out of its diplomatic isolation,” said Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at the Seoul National University Institute for Peace and Unification Studies.

“Kang Sok-ju’s tour may be take the form of party interactions, but we can also expect discussions on economic cooperation and attracting foreign investment,” Chang predicted.

Kang‘s trip to Europe is seen as unusual in two respects. First, it is the first time in many years that the secretary has personally visited Europe to play a major role in diplomatic efforts. While he was instrumental in organizing the unofficial meeting with the US in Europe that led to the 1994 Agreed Framework in Geneva, he has reportedly not been to the continent since 2000.

Also unusual is the fact that he is making a diplomatic push with Europe in his capacity as a Workers’ Party of Korea secretary.

“When you have a high-ranking official like a party secretary visiting Europe, it suggests they want to show off the Kim Jong-un regime’s stability to the international community, and they’re making an aggressive diplomatic effort to tell the world that North Korea is a normal state,” said University of North Korean Studies professor Yang Moo-jin.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]