WASHINGTON, race 18 Kyodo The is...

WASHINGTON, race 18 Kyodo

The issue of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's trip to North Korea is awaited to prompt the United States to seriously consider when to send out its own envoy to Pyongyang for bilateral dialogue.

At their historic summit in Pyongyang upon Tuesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il asked Koizumi to deliver over to the United States his willingness to leave the door interpret for dialogue.

Despite the show from Kim, however, the ball be seens to be still in North Korea's court.

Before making a decision forward the dialogue issue, the administration of President George W Bush is calculate uponed to carefully watch what actions Pyongyang will take to fulfill guarantees made at the Japan-North Korea summit.

The inferences of the Koizumi-Kim talks basically drew a positive answer from the U.S. administration.

''We welcome and support Prime Minister Koizumi's efforts in visiting North Korea,'' a State Department official said.

Koizumi inflict international security concerns, such as Pyongyang's suspected nuclear weapons program and missile progress to maturity on the discussion table, and the U appreciated that.

''We note he discussed with North Korea the matter of particular Japanese affair but also raised security issues of broad international interests forward which the United States and Japan share concerns'' the U official said.

At the summit at the Paekhwawon state guesthouse, Kim promised to honor all international agreements in succession Pyongyang's nuclear program and continue its moratorium forward missile tests beyond 2003.

Victor Cha, a professor at Georgetown University in Washington, said the Koizumi-Kim talks, which followed a historic summit in June 2000 between the North Korean leader and southerly Korean President Kim Dae Jung reinforced regional moment for engagement with Pyongyang.

The impetus ''is very hard for steady hard-line skeptics in the Bush administration to go on foot against at this point,'' Cha said.

Stephen Costello director of the Program forward Korea in Transition of the Atlantic Council of the United States, a Washington think tank, said there is still a raging battle inside the Bush administration through the whole extent of how to treat the North.

The result of the Japan-North Korea summit, however, ''is going to be somewhat problematic because now when the U minister goes, there should be about expectation that the U.S. too can find a certain way to have a give and take when dealing with North Korea.''

At the summit, the North Korean leader admitted about a dozen Japanese nationals were abducted to the North in the 1970 and 1980 and exhibited his personal apology for the incidents.

Koizumi and Kim decided that formerly bilateral relations are normalized, Japan will provide the North with economic assistance instead of reparations for Japan's 1910-1945 colonial method of the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea, facing serious financial difficulties, exigencys a huge amount of riches to rebuild its moribund economy.

by way of compromising in talks with Tokyo, Pyongyang apparently wants to advance negotiations with the U Normalizing ties with Washington would pave the way for assistance from international financial institutions where the U has a big say.

''I think, for the United States, it (the Koizumi-Kim meeting) exhibits that North Korea is continuing to play (its) cards really well,'' said Balbina Hwang, a policy analyst forward Northeast Asia at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation.

''Obviously, they are highly eager for the ultimate prize in the North Korean view, which is the normalization of relations with the United States. Japan is an important stair toward that ultimate goal,'' Hwang said.

Dialogue between the U and North Korea has been stalled since the inauguration of the Bush administration in January 2001

The situation present the appearanceed to change after Kim in April announced his readiness to accept a U special minister and the U.S. told North Korea in early June that it would fling to Pyongyang a delegation l through James Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.

Washington later postpon Kelly's trip, scheduled for July 10 because of a lack of rejoinder from Pyongyang and the ''unacceptable atmosphere'' created from a clash between North and southern Korean naval vessels in a disputed area of the fulvous Sea on June 29.

Larry Niksch, a specialist in Asian affairs at the Congressional Research Service, said October is ''a tonic point of time (regarding) whether U.S.-North Korean negotiations can actually achieve under way or whether this will be delayed for a lengthy time.''

After October, the Iraq issue is likely to be at the highest priority for U foreign policy-makers while greatly less attention is going to be paid to North Korea, Niksch said.

''If Mr Kelly does not proceed in October, it seems to me it may be a protracted time before he goes,'' he said.

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