N. Korea's No. 2 meets with French presidential envoy

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Nov. 12 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's nominal No. 2 met with a visiting French
presidential envoy in Pyongyang on Thursday, state media said, in what may be a
prelude to talks with the country's top leader Kim Jong-il.
Jack Lang, the special envoy for French President Nicholas Sarkozy on North
Korea, previously said he was carrying a "special message" from the president and
hoped to meet with Kim during his five-day visit.
With the envoy's departure set for Friday, it remains to be seen whether or when
the reclusive North Korean leader will meet with Lang.
The Korean Central Broadcasting Station, an official radio channel, said Lang
held conversation with Kim Yong-nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme
People's Assembly who serves as the ceremonial head of state, in the parliament
hall. Their talks were held "in a friendly atmosphere," the report said, without
elaborating.
Lang, a French Socialist Party member and former culture minister, was appointed
to the post last month to seek ways of establishing diplomatic relations between
the two countries. France is one of the few countries in the European Union that
does not have diplomatic ties with North Korea.
Lang is also expected to gauge a possible role by France in a regional forum over
the North's nuclear program and propose aid from the EU on condition of progress
in the atomic dispute.
Kim Jong-il, who reportedly suffered a stroke in August last year, has shown
himself to be healthy and active -- holding long hours of meetings with foreign
dignitaries in recent months. His meeting with former U.S. President Bill Clinton
in August stretched more than three hours, including a two-hour banquet, in a
major signal that the North was shifting to conciliatory diplomacy toward the
U.S. and South Korea after conducing a nuclear test in the spring.
Responding to calls by the North for bilateral talks, Stephen Bosworth, U.S.
special representative for North Korea policy, is expected to visit the country
within weeks. His schedule may take shape around a trip by U.S. President Barack
Obama to South Korea and other regional countries next week.
Threatening the nascent dialogue mood, however, the navies of the South and the
North exchanged gunfire near their Yellow Sea border on Tuesday, the first such
confrontation in seven years.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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