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By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter
A majority of people welcome the second inter-Korean summit slated for Aug. 28-30 in Pyongyang but they do not think it will bring any concrete results, according to a recent survey.
The survey, conducted by The Korea Times and its sister paper the Hankook Ilbo, Monday and Tuesday, showed 73.9 percent of respondents support the summit while 22.6 percent oppose it.
But 60.4 percent said the summit will end up without any tangible outcome because it was hastily arranged, while 29.9 percent saw it as useful for the denuclearization of North Korea and inter-Korean cooperation.
Asked what should top the summit agenda, denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula came first with 34.1 percent, followed by inter-Korean economic cooperation with 20.8 percent, methods for reunification with 14.4 percent and the establishment of a peace system on the peninsula, 13.4 percent.
Regarding the opposition parties' claim that President Roh Moo-hyun arranged the summit to garner political support for pro-government parties in the presidential election in December, more than half of the surveyed agreed with this.
Some 57.5 percent agree with the opposition Grand National Party's summation that the summit was arranged for political purposes compared to 33.5 percent who did not.
However, people were divided about whether the summit will influence the result of the presidential election _ 48.8 percent think the summit will affect the election but 43.7 percent think not.
Forty-six percent of respondents said Roh should not visit Mt. Geumsu Paklace, where the body of the late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung is preserved, if asked to by the North, while 41.2 percent had no problem with this.
When former President Kim Dae-jung visited Pyongyang in June 2000 for the first inter-Korean summit, he was insistently asked to visit the palace. But Kim declined to do so.
Media Research conducted the survey at the request of the two newspapers, asking 1,000 adults across the nation by phone. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a confidence level of 95 percent.
yoonwonsup@koreatimes.co.kr
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