DPRK FOREIGN MINISTER VISITS HANOI: NO FIRM PLAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 000905

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/05/2018
TAGS: CB KN PGOV PHUM PREL VM
SUBJECT: DPRK FOREIGN MINISTER VISITS HANOI: NO FIRM PLAN
FOR KIM JONG-IL VISIT

REF: A. HANOI 869

B. 07 HANOI 1901

C. 07 HANOI 1804

HANOI 00000905 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: Pol Counselor Brian Aggeler for Reasons 1.4 (B and D)


1. (C) Summary: On July 26, DPRK Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun
held official meetings in Hanoi with Communist Party of
Vietnam General Secretary Nong Duc Manh and Deputy Prime
Minister/Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem. The two Vietnamese
leaders reportedly told their North Korean guest that Hanoi
wants to strengthen ties with the DPRK and welcomes progress
in the six-party talks. According to MFA, Pyongyang is
unwilling to seriously open up its economy until its
relations with Washington improve. General Secretary Manh
reportedly asked Chun to reiterate his invitation to Kim
Jong-Il to visit Vietnam. ROK Embassy Poloff, however, said
Chun's visit did not make "meaningful progress" in getting
Kim Jong-Il to come here. Developing stronger economic
linkages between the two communist countries and more
high-level exchanges would increase the chances the "Dear
Leader" would visit Hanoi, according to the ROK Embassy
officer. While relations between Vietnam and North Korea
took a hit in 2004 after the GVN allowed hundreds of North
Korean refugees to resettle in South Korea, relations between
the two communist countries now appear to be warming
considerably. End Summary.

A Traditional Friendship
--------------


2. (SBU) After attending the ASEAN Regional Forum in
Singapore, DPRK Foreign Minister (FM) Pak Ui Chun paid an
official visit to Hanoi July 25-27 before going on to the
Non-Aligned Movement Ministerial in Tehran. In Hanoi Chun
met with Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) General Secretary
(GS) Nong Duc Manh and Deputy Prime Minister (DPM)/Foreign
Minister Pham Gia Khiem. His first visit to Vietnam since
becoming Foreign Minister, Chun also took time to visit
Hanoi's Temple of Literature, a cultural site significant to
Vietnam. Chun's visit follows the late June visit to Vietnam
by DPRK Security Minister Ju Sang Son and the late 2007 visit
by DPRK Prime Minister Kim Yong-Il.


3. (C) Vietnamese MFA Korea Division Head Nguyen An Duy told
Poloff that the high-level exchanges are part of overall
efforts, as agreed by the two sides during GS Manh's meetings
in Pyongyang in 2007, to increase and regularize exchanges at
"all levels and across ministries." Duy said Manh told Chun
that Hanoi wants to strengthen the "traditional friendship"
with the DPRK and welcomes progress in the six-party talks
and the DPRK's signing of the Treaty of Amity and
Cooperation. Manh repeated the invitation for "Dear Leader"
Kim Jong-Il to visit Vietnam, which the FM promised to relay
to the DPRK leader upon his return home, Duy stated. Duy
added that, for his part, Chun praised Vietnam's industrial
achievements and its rising stature in world affairs.
Despite reports of famine in North Korea, the FM did not
request any food aid, Duy said.

Assessing DPRK Reform Prospects
--------------


4. (C) In response to FM Chun's questions about Hanoi's
experiences in normalizing relations with Washington, DPM/FM
Khiem merely cited "guiding principles" by which the process
with the United States took place, Duy said. Hanoi remains
willing to share its experiences in opening up its economy
and in joining the world's organizations, but North Korean
thinking is "very different from Vietnamese thinking," Duy
stressed. He said that, in Hanoi's assessment, the North
Korean regime is more concerned about losing power than it is
about loss of face because it is presiding over a backward
country. Hanoi sees Pyongyang as unwilling to seriously open
up its economy until its relations with Washington improve,
Duy said.


5. (C) When asked about the Joint Statement issued during
President Nguyen Minh Triet's official visit to Tokyo last
year, Duy emphasized that the statement only committed Tokyo
and Hanoi to responding to the "international community's"
humanitarian and security concerns. Hanoi accepts
Pyongyang's explanation that the issue of Japanese citizens
abducted by North Korean agents was resolved when Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi was in charge, Duy declared. He
stressed that Hanoi will not press Pyongyang on the abduction
issue and the DPRK and Japanese Governments "have their own
channels" on this issue. According to a Japanese Embassy
Poloff, however, during his July 26 talks in Hanoi Japanese
Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura had indeed requested that
his Vietnamese hosts broach the abduction issue with the DPRK

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Foreign Minister.

The View from the ROK Embassy
--------------


6. (C) ROK Embassy Poloff Jeong Woo-Jin said Chun told his
Vietnamese hosts that the DPRK is "not happy" about the
current state of relations between the two Koreas. Chun
asserted in his talks here that improving the relationship
between the two Koreas depends on the ROK side, according to
Woo-Jin.


7. (C) Before Chun arrived in Hanoi, "working level"
officials from the two sides had arranged rice donations from
Vietnam, Woo-Jin continued. Moreover, the North Korean side
had asked Hanoi to say the latter offered the rice, not that
the DPRK had requested it, Woo-Jin said. He agreed that Chun
seemed interested in Hanoi's normalization process with
Washington. In Woo-Jin's assessment, this shows that some
North Korean officials are thinking Pyongyang might begin
negotiations with the USG.


8. (C) As for a possible visit to Hanoi by "Dear Leader" Kim
Jong-Il, Chun's visit did not make "much meaningful progress"
on this front, Woo-Jin asserted. He pointed out that no
specific dates have been mentioned. Furthermore, when the
Vietnamese Vice Minister of Trade and Industry visits North
Korea later this month, Hanoi and Pyongyang will explore ways
to develop their weak economic ties, Woo-Jin said. He
concluded that improved economic linkages would increase the
chances that the "Dear Leader" would visit Vietnam.

Comment: Setting An Example, But Not Preaching
-------------- -


9. (C) Relations between Vietnam and North Korea took a hit
in 2004 after Hanoi allowed hundreds of North Korean refugees
to relocate to South Korea. At that time, the DPRK pulled
its Ambassador in protest. That low-point now seems a
distant memory as the two sides have kept up a steady stream
of high-level exchanges, though leaders from the two sides do
not have many economic linkages to tout. GS Manh has taken
the lead for the Vietnamese side in dealing with North Korean
officials mainly because of his successful visit to Pyongyang
in late 2007. Pictures of the GS meetings with Kim Jong-Il
adorn a billboard in front of the DPRK Embassy. Vietnamese
officials, however, remain careful not to lecture their North
Korean friends about the benefits of opening up to the
outside world.
MICHALAK