pyongyang Roh Stresses Substantive and Concrete Progress

The following are excerpts from the official English text of President Roh Moo-hyun's speech to the nation made before his departure to Pyongyang on Tuesday for the second inter-Korean summit. _ ED.

In comparison to the time around my inauguration when tensions were escalating, it is now a relief and pleasure indeed that developments surrounding the Korean Peninsula and inter-Korean relations have changed to the extent that the South-North Korean summit can be held.

I am deeply grateful to the people for trusting and supporting the North Korea policy of the Participatory Government up until today.

The South-North summit meetings this time will be held in a calm and pragmatic manner. If the inter-Korean summit in 2000 can be said to have paved a new path for South-North relations, the summit this time will be able to remove stumbling blocks on the way and hasten the slow march.

There will be various items on the agenda for discussion, but, among other things, I intend to concentrate on making substantive and concrete progress that will bring about a peace settlement together with economic development.

The issue of denuclearization and a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula cannot be ultimately resolved only through an agreement between the South and North. But, I believe that the determination of the two Koreas is more crucial than anything else when it comes to outlining the basic direction and picking up the pace of the movement forward.

I will do what I can to the best of my ability to make the summit instrumental in expediting the success of the six-party talks and contributing to peace on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.

Inter-Korean economic cooperation has made remarkable headway, but there still remain many obstacles along the road. Many of those barriers can be attributable not only to international factors but also to the gap in understanding between the South and North.

Without overcoming these impediments, inter-Korean economic cooperation cannot be accelerated in earnest. I will marshal all my efforts to close the gap in understanding between the two Koreas.

In addition, I will work as hard as I can to hammer out a concrete agreement on such issues as building military trust and addressing humanitarian matters.

I am well aware of the demands and expectations you have pinned on this summit. There are numerous issues put forth by the general public as well as experts. The South-North Korean Summit Promotion Committee has also gone over many agenda items. Still, there are many other issues remaining.

It would be ideal to reflect public expectations in the agenda as much as possible and garner corresponding results. However, this one-time visit will not be enough to deal with all these issues. Given the remainder of my term of office, there will be limitations in achieving what will have been discussed during the summit.

In this regard, what matters is to take steps forward in a timely and faithful manner. On the one hand, I will not be overly ambitious, but on the other, I will not restrain myself nor set any restrictions.

There are historic duties entrusted to me. Guided by a cool-headed judgment about the situation surrounding us in this era, I will do my best to fulfill my duties.

If necessary, I will engage in persuasion when I should and make compromises when I need to so that we can reach an agreement. Even if we do not reach an agreement in many areas, it would still be a meaningful achievement to narrow the gap in understanding and to enhance confidence in each other.

I firmly believe that things will progress well. This is because the two Koreas are likely to remain on the same path if we take a far-sighted and broad stand.