By Jack Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) - A U.S. official charged with enforcing U.N. sanctions on North Korea will seek South Korea's support during talks in Seoul on Monday even as Pyongyang makes conciliatory moves after months of military grandstanding.
A high-ranking North Korean delegation led by close aides of leader Kim Jong-il sent to mourn a former South Korean leader met President Lee Myung-bak on Sunday and delivered a message from the North's leader in their first formal communication since Lee took office about 18 months ago.
South Korean news reports said the delegation, led by senior North Korean political officials, conveyed Kim's message seeking a summit with the South Korean leader. Lee's office denied such discussions took place.
Philip Goldberg, the U.S. coordinator for the U.N. sanctions on North Korea, was expected to meet South Korean officials to coordinate enforcement of the punishments aimed at stamping out the impoverished state's arms trade -- a vital source of cash.
Analysts said the rare conciliatory gestures from the North may indicate that sanctions contained in U.N. resolutions put in place following its long-range rocket launch in April and nuclear test in May could be squeezing the state and forcing it to seek funds for its depleted coffers.
The North may be looking for renewed help from the South, which once supplied aid equal to about 5 percent of its estimated $17 billion a year GDP.
The North had all but cut ties after President Lee took office in anger at his policy of cutting off unconditional handouts and calling on the North to decrease the security threat it poses to the region.
In one sign of the North seeking a thaw, leader Kim said he wanted to resume suspended tourism projects in the North by an affiliate of the South's Hyundai Group.
Last week, he dispatched envoys to the South for the first time in two years for the funeral of former President Kim Dae-jung, whose 2000 summit with the North Korean leader in Pyongyang led to better ties and massive aid for his state.
The latest moves also coincide with reports North Korea's already ravaged economy, always on the edge of famine, may be heading into deeper difficulties from a combination of international sanctions and a poor harvest.
GLOBAL PRESSURE
Analysts said the effectiveness of U.N. resolutions aimed at Pyongyang hinged on the full participation by neighbour China, the North's biggest benefactor and the closest thing it can claim as a major ally.
But Beijing, which has called on Pyongyang and Washington to talk, has been reluctant to push any punishment that could destabilise the North's leaders and bring chaos to its border.
North Korea has made overtures to negotiate directly with the United States but the Obama administration has been reluctant to enter such talks and instead called for the resumption of six-party nuclear disarmament talks.
The North may be swayed into resuming the talks to please China, the host of the discussions that also include the two Koreas, Japan, Russia and the United States, but few analysts expect that it will ever give up its nuclear weapons.
(Editing by Jon Herskovitz)
