Gregg, a former ambassador to South Korea, was speaking with members of Seoul’s UN mission and Korean lawmakers who were in New York for a government audit of the mission.

He said North Korea was keen on a high-level U.S. dignitary making a visit, which was a possible reason why there is so much talk about U.S. chief negotiator Christopher Hill visiting the North.

It is difficult for President George W. Bush to make the visit himself or meet with North Koreans at the November APEC summit in Busan, Gregg said, but the president’s father could make the trip instead.

Asked what Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice meant by saying if the North really did give up its weapons program it could receive a “big gift,” Gregg said he was uncertain if she was suggesting the U.S. could formally recognize the North Korean regime or whether Washington could strike the Stalinist country from its list of states supporting terrorism. But he added he was “pretty sure” Rice did not mean a material gift.

He said the biggest problem between the U.S. and North Korea was mutual distrust, but by the end of the last round of talks he said he could feel trust between North Korea's chief negotiator Kim Kye-gwan and Hill finally starting to grow. Gregg said when he visited the North last month, Kim Kye-gwan and Li Gun of the Foreign Ministry’s American Affairs Bureau told him Hill was truly different from his predecessor James Kelly.

Gregg explained that when Kelly was the chief negotiator, the State Department was pushed by the National Security Council and Vice President Dick Cheney and thus had little discretionary power, but Hill has considerable room to maneuver.

(englishnews@chosun.com )