Pyongyang’s envoy smiles

North Korean Foreign Affairs Minister Pak Ui Chun, right, raises the hands of Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo, left, during the 14th ASEAN Regional Forum retreat at the Philippine International Convention Center in Manila on Thursday Aug. 2, 2007. (AP Photo/ Aaron Favila)


Pyongyang’s envoy smiles

By Kwang-Tae Kim

NORTH Korean diplomats have a well-earned reputation as glum technocrats who spout the reclusive communist country’s official line and little else.
Its new face to the world isn’t any more likely to stray from policy and hasn’t been any more forthcoming about North Korea’s inner workings. But in his first appearance on an international stage, new Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun is showing that he knows how to smile and even recognizes a good photo opportunity.
The 74-year-old Pak, making his first overseas trip since becoming North Korea’s top diplomat in May, is in Manila to attend the Asean Regional Forum, Asia’s largest security grouping. His visit comes amid renewed optimism that his country will eventually abandon its nuclear weapons program in return for economic aid and other political concessions.
Paek Nam Sun, who had been North Korea’s top diplomat since 1998, died of lung cancer on Jan. 2 at age 78. Looking like his face might break if he cracked a smile, he sported a pin of North Korea’s national founder, Kim Il Sung, on his lapel during public appearances and wasn’t exactly known for his love of the foreign media.
At last year’s Asean Regional Forum, he couldn’t wait for the end of a photo opportunity at the start of a meeting, looking at journalists and dismissively waving toward the door.
“Just take pictures, and get out,” Paek said.
Pak has the same lapel pin of Kim, but he showed some media savvy on Sunday as he held a joint news conference with Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo. When Romulo stuck out his hand for a congratulatory shake after the two men announced an agreement on joint cooperation, Pak smiled widely, grabbed the hand and raised it high in triumph as camera flashes erupted.
The bespectacled Pak also grabbed the hand of a Filipino military officer after he laid a wreath Monday in front of a monument honoring Filipino National Hero Jose Rizal. He smiled when he met Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
But Pak showed there was a limit to his interaction with the media. He did not say a word to reporters as he walked out of his hotel.
Pak has had more experience outside North Korea than virtually all of his countrymen, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry.
He was born in 1932 and graduated from Pyongyang’s University of International Relations, a school that grooms the country’s future diplomats. An elite loyalist, he rose steadily through the Foreign Ministry over the decades.
He became acting ambassador to Cameroon in 1973, then ambassador to Algeria in 1980 and Syria and Lebanon in the 1990s, according to the Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs.
Pak was recalled from Syria in 1996 for unclear reasons and became vice foreign minister later that year. He then served as North Korea’s ambassador to Russia for eight years before becoming foreign minister in May, the ministry said.
In 2002, Pak accompanied reclusive leader Kim Jong Il on a train trip to Russia’s Far Eastern region.
Pak’s appointment as foreign minister likely came as “a courtesy” to honor his long service in the Foreign Ministry and is not likely to lead to any change in North Korea’s foreign policy, according to the Unification Ministry. AP