The President of the Republic of Korea (ROK), Roh Moo-hyun, said
yesterday his country will seek a joint economic community with the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as officials from the
two sides prepare for the second-ever summit between leaders on the
divided peninsula.
Also yesterday, a ROK official announced Roh would travel to
Pyongyang for the August 28-30 summit with DPRK leader Kim Jong Il
via restored roads across the two countries' heavily armed border.
The Koreas held their first summit seven years ago, when then-ROK
President Kim Dae-jung flew to the North.
Roh, who has pursued a policy of engagement toward the North,
said yesterday that mutual economic dependence between the two
sides was the key to guaranteeing peace on the peninsula.
The Republic of Korea will "make efforts to forge an economic
community" with the DPRK as it is the most important issue to bring
peace to the Korean peninsula," presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-sun
quoted Roh as telling his Cabinet.
The two Koreas have yet to set the agenda for the summit, but
they worked out some of the summit arrangements at a meeting
between officials from both sides in the North's border city of
Kaesong.
Roh will travel by the restored western road through the
Demilitarized Zone using his own motorcade to and from Pyongyang,
ROK Vice-Unification Minister Lee Kwan-se said after meeting with
DPRK officials. The ROK initially proposed that Roh travel to
Pyongyang via train but the North balked at the idea, citing
unspecified internal issues, Lee said.
The two Koreas held a cross-border test run of trains on
restored tracks in May, marking the first time trains crossed the
border since rail links were cut early in the 1950-53 Korean War.
However, the influential DPRK military has been wary of the
restored tracks due to security concerns and the test-run only
occurred after repeated delays.
The two sides did not yet discuss the specific agenda of the
summit and plan to meet again tomorrow in Kaesong for further
consultations, said Lee. Next week, Lee said the ROK will also send
a 30-member advance team to Pyongyang by land for preparations
ahead of the summit.
The two Koreas remain technically at war since the Korean War
ended in a cease-fire that has never been replaced with a peace
treaty.
They have made strides toward reconciliation since the 2000
summit but progress has been halting because of the international
dispute over the DPRK's nuclear weapons programs that climaxed with
the North's first-ever nuclear test detonation in October.
However, regional tensions have calmed after the US reversed its
hard-line stance on Pyongyang, prompting the North to shut down its
sole operating reactor last month in exchange for energy aid.
(China Daily via agencies August 15, 2007)
