 Unification Minister |
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
South Korea will ask North Korea to allow President Roh Moo-hyun to travel to Pyongyang by land, possibly using a reconnected railway across the border, for an inter-Korean summit, the unification minister said Thursday.
Presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-seon also did not rule out the possibility of Roh traveling to Pyongyang by train for the summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il from Aug. 28-30.
Former President Kim Dae-jung flew to Pyongyang for the first inter-Korean summit in June 2000.
``I don't know now how the North will respond to our request. But I believe it can accept it given that many delegations have visited North Korea by land,'' Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung told reporters.
He referred to a visit by U.S. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to the Stalinist state earlier this year as a precedent.
Lee, however, said it was not clear at the moment if Roh would seek to travel by road or rail to the North Korean capital.
The minister said working-level representatives from the two Koreas will begin discussing details of the summit, including how to travel, agenda items, the numbers of the South Korean delegation, protocols and media coverage, next week.
Cross-border roads were reopened in 2003 and trains crossed the Military Demarcation Line dividing the Korean Peninsula in May in a one-time test.
On May 17, two trains crossed the border on both the western and eastern parts of the Korean Peninsula for the first time in 54 years since the Korean War.
Thousands of South Koreans now cross the border to North Korea each year by road to work in an inter-Korean industrial complex in the border city of Gaeseong and to visit the scenic Mount Geumgang resort.
If Roh is to make a railway trip to the North, the South Korean leader is expected to use the western Gyeongui line to Gaeseong and change trains or cars to Pyongyang, a government source said. If he does so, the North Korean leader will be able to tour the Gaeseong complex with his South Korean counterpart, he said, asking not to be named.
``A railway trip (to the North) is not impossible technically,'' the source said. ``But that would likely involve many preparations for both sides such as security issues for the leaders.''
Meanwhile, Lee hinted that the summit could affect the schedule of the upcoming South Korea-U.S. military drill later this month. Working-level delegations from the two sides will discuss the issue, he said.
The South Korean and U.S. militaries are scheduled to hold an annual joint training exercise, Ulchi Focus Lens, from Aug. 21-30. The drill is expected to involve 10,000 U.S. troops, most of them stationed in South Korea, and an undisclosed number of South Korean forces.
Seoul and Washington insist the exercise, one of the world's largest computer-simulated war games, is purely for defensive purposes, but Pyongyang regularly denounces the training as a rehearsal to invade the North.
gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr
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