By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
The summit between South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has been promoted under extreme confidence, with South Korean spy agency chief secretly visiting the North.
Earlier in July, the South Korean government proposed a high-ranking official meeting between the South's Kim Man-bok, director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), and the North's Kim Yang-gon, director of Workers' Party's Unification Front Department, for improving the inter-Korean relationship, according to the government.
Following the proposal, North Korea invited the NIS chief to the North under Kim Yang-gon's name on July 29 for a closed meeting there.
``I visited North Korea as a presidential envoy twice on Aug. 2-3 and Aug. 4-5, and the agreement on summit meeting has been drawn,'' Kim told reporters Wednesday.
During the first visit, the NIS chief received a proposal to hold the summit at the end of August in Pyongyang from his counterpart who was entrusted by the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
He reported it to Roh and on his second visit, he delivered Roh's acceptance letter to the proposal.
The two Kims from both sides have played key roles in arranging the summit.
Kim was a South Korean envoy to the four-party talks among two Koreas, China and the U.S. in 1998-1999, and visited Pyongyang in June 2000 for preparation of the first inter-Korean summit between Kim Jong-il and former President Kim Dae-jung.
He also worked for the National Security Council and led a team to assess the adequacy of South Korea's troop dispatch to Iraq.
Kim from the North is known as a power elite close to the North Korean leader, and his status is expected to be heightened with full confidence from the leader.
He has been reportedly involved in six-party talks. He also took part in the meeting between Kim Jong-il and South Korea's former Unification Minister Chung Dong-young in 2005 and accompanied the North Korean leader to the Chinese Embassy in North Korea last March.