South Korean Leader To Reach Out to North

WASHINGTON — President Lee of South Korea said yesterday that he will propose creating a permanent high-level diplomatic channel between North Korea and South Korea, including establishing the first liaison offices in the nations' capitals after nearly six decades of division.

America, since the Clinton administration, has urged Seoul to take this step, but this is the first time a South Korean president has officially proposed doing so. "Both North and South Korea must change their ways," Mr. Lee said in an interview with Washington Post editors and reporters. The South Korean president, who will stay at Camp David Friday night for meetings with President Bush, said that North Korea is having trouble adjusting to the new tone set by his nascent administration on intra-Korean matters. Mr. Lee has linked improvements in the economic relationship between the two countries to progress on eliminating North Korea's nuclear weapons programs, a significant shift from his predecessor's policy.

Mr. Lee, 68, a former chief executive of the Hyundai Group and mayor of Seoul, has signaled his intent to work more closely with America, particularly on the six-nation negotiations to end North Korea's nuclear programs. American officials have high hopes for greatly improving the sometimes rocky relationship with South Korea during Mr. Lee's tenure.

During the interview, he embraced the recent American proposal to have North Korea "acknowledge" American concerns and evidence about its apparent efforts to enrich uranium and its suspected nuclear trading with Syria, rather than provide its own dossier on such activities. Mr. Lee said that the solution — criticized by American conservatives — would offer North Korea "an indirect way to being involved in these two activities," therefore allowing the stalled negotiations to move forward.

In a further hint of flexibility, Secretary of State Rice suggested to reporters yesterday that Washington may lift two key sanctions against North Korea even before the nation's assertions are verified. "Verification can take some time," Ms. Rice said.

Mr. Lee's plan for liaison offices appears to be his own effort to reach out to Pyongyang in a novel way. North Korea has hurled a series of what he calls "belligerent and bellicose" statements about the South Korean president since he took office 50 days ago.

Mr. Lee said his administration remains "calm and collected" about the North Korean attacks. To that end, he said, he wants to establish a permanent channel so the nations could have a regular dialogue, rather than intermittent contacts elicited by crises. He said that offices should be headed by officials with direct access to the leaders of each country.

"Between the two Koreas we need to always have dialogue going on," Mr. Lee said. "In the past, we had dialogue between the two Koreas whenever there was a need, and then when there wasn't a need, the dialogue would close. I don't think that is helpful in the situation."

Mr. Lee, who earned the nickname "Bulldozer" as a corporate executive, wore a bold green tie and, through an interpreter, spoke confidently about his views on a range of issues, including the food shortage in North Korea, the American economy, and Chinese influence in North Korea