Veteran journalist and Korea expert Don Oberdorfer said Wednesday he was given the message on a visit to North Korea from Nov. 2 to 4 that year by the country’s Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju. It was a piece of paper with a message in Korean, which he was told to pass to U.S. President Bush. Oberdorfer said the gist of the message, which was translated on the spot, was that if the U.S. made a “courageous decision” guaranteeing it would not invade, the North would “respond accordingly.” He said there was no signature or letterhead but it was a type of message commonly used in informal diplomacy.

On Nov. 7, after his return to the U.S., Oberdorfer gave the message to Stephen Hadley, who was then deputy national security advisor, and told the White House to get in touch with Pyongyang, but Hadley's response was negative. Oberdorfer said he heard from then-deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage on Nov. 13 that President Bush, then-secretary of state Colin Powell and then-national security advisor Condoleeza Rice all read the message “seriously.” However, President Bush that same day told a different meeting he would suspend heavy oil shipments to North Korea. The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization announced the decision the next day.

Oberdorfer said he made the facts public now in hopes that Bush will take seriously the positive signals sent by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in a meeting with South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young last week, and look at them as an opportunity to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis. Together with former U.S. ambassador to Korea Donald Gregg, who was with him during the visit, Oberdorfer made the message public in the June 22 edition of the Washington Post.

(englishnews@chosun.com )