By
The Associated Press
SHANNON, Ireland - In a move that could help advance reconciliation and possibly reunification of the two Koreas, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will go to Pyongyang this weekend where she will meet with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il.
The two-day visit will be followed immediately by a meeting in Seoul with South Korean and Japanese officials, who will be eager for a report on the talks and the implications for Northeast Asia.
Albright pledged last month as U.S. relations with North Korea continued to spiral upward that U.S. troops would remain in South Korea, where they have formed a barrier for a half-century to a North Korean surge across the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
Their continued presence is designed also to allay anxieties in Japan and in other countries in the region.
Albright will depart Sunday from Washington for talks in Pyongyang Monday and Tuesday and then the Seoul meeting. She announced her plan yesterday while flying home from Saudi Arabia, where she held separate talks with Crown Prince Abdullah and Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The warming of relations with North Korea and its emergence from rigid isolation was marked by freezes on nuclear weapons and missile programs. The trend kicked into high gear in June when South Korean President Kim Dae-jung met at the summit with Kim Jong Il.
The South Korean president received the Nobel Peace Prize last week for his campaign to reduce tensions on the peninsula.
Albright told reporters on the way to a refueling stop here that she would be "probing to see whether the openings for which Kim Dae-jung got the much-deserved Nobel prize allows for us to look at a different set of relationships with North Korea - but based on our own national interests."
The United States already has forged an agreement with North Korea, freezing their nuclear weapons programs in exchange for a civilian-style reactor and energy supplies. North Korea also has pledged to halt its missile tests.
Albright's visit could set the stage for one by President Clinton, possibly in November when he is due to visit Vietnam.
Last week, North Korea's Vice Marshal Jo Myong Rok, who is second in power in Pyongyang visited Clinton at the White House and was treated to an official banquet by Albright.
Still, North Korea remains branded as a sponsor of terrorism by the State Department and its human rights record has been sharply criticized by the department.
