N. Korea Tops Lee’s Summits With Leaders
By Na Jeong-ju
Korea Times Correspondent
ROME ― President Lee Myung-bak agreed with the leaders of Russia, Canada, Italy and Australia to work together to achieve a peaceful resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue.
Lee held summits with the leaders on the sidelines of the extended G8 summit in L'Aquila to discuss issues of mutual concern, including North Korea's recent nuclear and missile tests.
During a meeting between Lee and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Thursday, the leaders agreed on the need to push North Korea to come to the negotiating table based on close cooperation with the international community.
They also expressed satisfaction over growing bilateral trade and investment, noting that Korea's import of Russian natural gas and joint projects to develop oil reserves and build gas pipelines in Russia will help consolidate economic relations.
At their summit in Moscow last September, Russia agreed to ship natural gas to South Korea through a pipeline via North Korea starting in 2015 assuming it can persuade the North to join the project.
Under the contract signed between Korea Gas Corp. and Russia's Gazprom, Moscow is to send at least 7.5 million tons of natural gas annually for a period of 30 years through the pipeline running from Vladivostok in Russia's far east to South Korea.
``Lee and Medvedev shared the view that North Korea should stop raising tension and resume talks with other countries to peacefully resolve the nuclear issue,'' presidential spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye said.
Lee's bilateral talks with Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper focused on ways to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties between the two countries. They also discussed the issues of climate change, food crises and free trade talks.
``Next year, Korea will host the G20 summit, while Canada will host the G8 summit. As the presiding countries of the global dialogues, Korea and Canada agreed to work together to find solutions to the challenging global issues,'' Cheong Wa Dae said.
Lee and Harper also agreed to cooperate to seek denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through a framework of international negotiations, said the presidential office.
Lee and Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi agreed to work together to achieve an early conclusion of the free trade talks between Korea and the European Union. They shared the view that the deal is crucial to develop Korea-EU relations to strategic partnership.
In talks between Lee and Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the two leaders noted that negotiations are making progress to sign the Korea-Australia free trade agreement. They agreed to closely cooperate to secure an early conclusion of the deal, a presidential spokesperson said.