By Kim Yon-se, Ryu Jin
Staff Reporters
President Roh Moo-hyun will visit Pyongyang Tuesday for peace talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
For the first time as head of state, President Roh is to cross the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) on foot in the morning. The epoch-making event will be televised worldwide. Before crossing the symbol of Cold War, Roh will deliver a peace message to the world, a Cheong Wa Dae spokesman said.
The passage through the line needs approval from the United Nations Command (UNC) and North Korea as the line is within the four-kilometer-wide Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a strip of land running across the peninsula that serves as a buffer zone.
The 248 kilometer line runs near the 38th parallel over land; at sea, the two sides are divided by the Northern Limit Line (NLL). South Korean and U.S. soldiers patrol the line along the southern side, while North Koreans patrol their side.
A Defense Ministry official said the military is on full alert as Roh is to cross the border. The line has remained the last flash point of the Cold War with more than half a million soldiers standing guard across the aging and rusting barbed wire line.
Roh is to be the first leader from the South to cross the border on foot to North since the war, though Kim Gu, the late independence fighter and national leader (1876-1949), had a photo session by a ``Parallel 38'' sign while passing the border on foot in 1948.
After walking across the DMZ, he will be driven to Pyongyang via an expressway, an official said. ``The President will arrive at Pyongyang around 11:30 a.m. and the North's No. 2 leader Kim Yong-nam and citizens will welcome him.'
The inter-Korean summit is the first to be held in seven years since President Kim Dae-jung visited Pyongyang for the first summit in 2000.
Before his departure around 8 a.m for the three-day visit to North Korea, Roh will make a televised speech to Korean citizens and arrive at the southern side of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) around 9 a.m.
Roh will visit the Mansudae Assembly Hall in the afternoon for a meeting with the North's ceremonial head of state. But it still remains unclear whether North Korean leader Kim will meet Roh Tuesday afternoon.
On Wednesday, Roh and North Korean leader Kim will likely hold two rounds of summit talks for in-depth discussions on inter-Korean co-prosperity, peace, reconciliation and unification.
The two leaders are likely to hold a media event in which they plant a ``tree for peace'' _ as a joint wish for a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula _ during one of the three days. Many analysts speculate that the North Korean leader will arrange at least one surprise event to welcome Roh during the summit. In the 2000 summit, he made an unscheduled meeting with then President Kim at an airport near Pyongyang.
They are expected to reach agreements on the South's participation in massive infrastructure and industrial development projects in the North. Depending on the results of the talks, the two leaders may adopt a joint statement.
Roh is scheduled to visit the Gaeseong Industrial Complex for about an hour on his way back to Seoul Oct. 4.
The President reaffirmed Monday that the establishment of a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula will be the top item on the agenda to be discussed during his meeting with the North Korean leader.
In keeping with progress on Korean Peninsula peace talks, the two Koreas will start discussing ways to enhance mutual military confidence, the signing of a Korean Peninsula peace treaty and inter-Korean disarmament, Roh said.
``Without confidence in peace, co-prosperity and unification on the Korean Peninsula would be meaningless. Furthermore, regional circumstances surrounding the peninsula, including the six-party talks on the settlement of the North Korean nuclear issue, have entered a hopeful phase," said the president.