DATE=03/26/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=KOREAS DIALOGUE L-ONLY

NUMBER=2-287984

BYLINE=AMY BICKERS

DATELINE=TOKYO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Nuclear weapons issues are expected to figure prominently in talks between North and South Korea, slated to begin next Wednesday. As V-O-A's Amy Bickers reports from our Northeast Asia Bureau, Seoul made a surprise announcement Monday that it would dispatch a special envoy to the North Korean capital to restart stalled dialogue.

TEXT: Lim Dong-won, South Korea's special envoy to North Korea, told reporters in Seoul late Monday that he plans to raise the issue of the

North's suspected nuclear weapons program.

But the main issue will be how to restart dialogue, which hit a high when the Korean leaders held a summit in June 2000. The two nations agreed to confidence building measures as a path toward eventual reunification. But that fledgling cooperation has faltered as tension rose between North Korea and Seoul's main ally, the United States.

President Bush declared in January that Pyongyang was part of an axis of evil - together with Iran and Iraq - which is intent on developing weapons of mass destruction. Mr. Bush has taken a tough approach to North Korea since taking office last year - but has been pushing for talks with Pyongyang.

Mr. Lim plans to encourage North Korean officials to engage in a new dialogue with the United States.

Analyst Bob Broadfoot of the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy in Hong Kong believes Mr. Lim must succeed to save Seoul's policy of engaging North Korea.

/// BROADFOOT ACT ///

I think Mr. Kim's sunshine policy has stalled and he is starting to be perceived as a lame duck during his remaining period in office, which ends

at the end of this year. So if he is going to get some momentum again, he has got to get the United States and North Korea to talk and that is not

going to happen if only the U-S takes the initiative.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Lim is considered the chief architect of South Korean President Kim Dae-jung's so-called Sunshine policy of engagement with Pyongyang.

One of the main obstacles to better relations - is U-S military support for South Korea. There are 37-thousand U-S troops in the South prepared to defend against a possible attack by the communist North. (SIGNED)

NEB/HK/AB/JO