Diplomat sees the surreal and the sad in N. Korea

By PAUL DE LA GARZA

Revised March 29, 2001

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 28, 2001

WASHINGTON -- As a U.S. diplomat, Wendy R. Sherman was accustomed to formal state banquets.

The flowery toasts. The peculiar dishes.

The polite smiles.

But in May 1999, Sherman attended a banquet in Pyongyang, the capital of communist North Korea. What struck her was the entertainment. In between glasses of California wine -- compliments of the Americans -- and fried pigeon brains -- compliments of the North Koreans -- a group of folk singers performed Clementine and Oh! Susanna in English.

"It was surreal," she says, "because we knew that there were millions of people (in the country) who were starving."

As special adviser on North Korea policy to President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Sherman got rare and often fascinating access to the top leadership of the normally secretive, hard-line Stalinist regime.

But you wouldn't call it a plum job, for the Korean peninsula is among the world's most heavily militarized zones. In the 1990s, North Korea's missile and nuclear programs spawned fears among U.S. officials of a nuclear war, which is why Clinton made it a priority.

Last fall, Sherman and Albright became the first U.S. government officials to meet with Kim Jong Il, 59, the nation's repressive leader.

With the economy in a shambles and with the country of almost 20-million people dying of hunger, Sherman says Kim is reaching out to the West to preserve his power.

Two years ago, as part of a policy review, Sherman traveled to Pyongyang for the first time. It was then that the U.S. delegation, led by former Defense Secretary William J. Perry, was treated to the banquet crooners.

They also got to see the city: the empty streets, the cheerless buildings, the fanatical devotion to Kim. "Every guide -- the guides were generally women -- spoke beautiful English," Sherman, who no longer works at the State Department, said in an interview. "Every other word is, you know, the great leader or the dear leader.

"Every member of North Korea, every citizen of North Korea, wears a lapel button with a picture of Kim Jong Il on it or Kim Il Sung."

Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea, is his father. The elder Kim died six years ago.

During the visit, Sherman said, government officials were "closed, well-indoctrinated, rigid," but the two sides made progress.

Last June, in a diplomatic move cheered by Korea watchers, Kim met with Kim Dae Jung, the president of South Korea. Last fall, he dispatched his chief military man to the White House; in turn, Albright visited Pyongyang.

In the waning days of the Clinton presidency, Washington and Pyongyang almost reached an agreement that would have neutralized North Korea's missile threat, a central justification by the United States for promoting a national missile defense system. In the end, time ran out.

The Bush administration, meanwhile, has launched its own policy review. But a few weeks ago, the president said he did not trust the North Korean leader. He said he was willing to consider arms talks with Pyongyang, but not now.

Sherman said she was disappointed with the tone of the White House, insisting that Washington needs to engage the North to avoid war.

In a recent New York Times op-ed piece, Sherman wrote, "Kim Jong Il is capable of creating a crisis absent a clear signal that negotiations are possible."

Asked what he was capable of doing, she refused to say. In 1998, however, North Korea shocked U.S. defense experts by trying to put a satellite into orbit. In recent days, Pyongyang has stepped up the rhetoric, characterizing the United States as a nation of cannibals.

When Sherman began working on North Korea in 1997, she said experts thought the country would collapse within two years.

But, she said, "because the indoctrination of North Korea is so profound, people truly believe that . . . they are a great country, that their leader brings them all things wonderful."

Sherman and Albright spent 12 hours with Kim. She described him as smart, as someone willing to listen to a good argument.

"He has a sense of humor," she said. But, she added, "In spite of the fact that he watches CNN and uses the Internet, there's still a lot about the world that he does not know."

Asked which moment stood out during her visits with Kim, Sherman mentioned a propaganda event at a stadium. The show featured tens of thousands of people flashing cards that depicted various murals, including a missile.

The invitation came as a surprise. When they walked into the stadium, Sherman, who sat next to Kim, saw something she will never forget: the fruits of indoctrination.

"You know, if you walk in and 250,000 people shout your name for five minutes it has to do something to your psyche," she said. "It's both extraordinary, and at one level frightening, that somebody has that kind of power."

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