By Kim Young-jin
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is willing to hold a summit with President Lee Myung-bak to discuss denuclearization and other issues, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said Thursday after wrapping up a three-day trip to Pyongyang.
Carter, who flew directly to Seoul along with three other ex-heads of state, said that while his delegation did not meet with Kim, it received a personal message delivered through a senior official.
“They are very willing to discuss nuclear issues and any other military issues directly with South Korea including at the highest possible level between Kim Jong-il and the President of South Korea,” Carter said during a press conference.
The remarks came after a delegation of The Elders, an international non-government organization of public figures, arrived in a private jet from Pyongyang and held talks with senior Seoul officials.
The message came amid a flurry of diplomacy aimed at an eventual resumption of multilateral negotiations on Pyongyang’s denuclearization.
Seoul, which has indicated it is willing to hold an inter-Korean summit, has yet to respond. The Lee administration had previously attached a summit to apologies for two deadly attacks last year.
Seoul and Washington want the North to apologize for the sinking of the warship Cheonan in March and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island before any resumption of the six-party denuclearization talks.
Carter said North Korean officials expressed “deep regret for the loss of life” of those aboard the Cheonan as well as the civilian deaths sustained during the shelling incident. But he added that Pyongyang was unlikely to admit culpability for the sinking, which remains a major hurdle to any dialogue.
But the delegation did report that headway had been made in bolstering the transparency of any food aid to the impoverished nation.
“In the past there has been a breakdown in food delivery...because of the impediments created by North Korea. Those impediments have now been removed. That’s a change,” Carter said, referring to a deal made between Pyongyang and the World Food Program.
The quartet also included former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, former Irish President Mary Robinson and former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland.
Carter revealed earlier the delegation had failed to secure major concessions on the North’s nuclear program and that officials there insisted Washington provide assurances it would not attack the communist state.
The North has long coveted such assurances from Washington, which maintains some 28,000 troops in the South, as well as a peace treaty to end the 1950-53 Korean War.
Efforts to resume the six-party talks have gained pace since Seoul and Washington accepted Beijing’s proposal that inter-Korean denuclearization talks precede a resumption of a full forum.
The six-party talks _ which also includes the United States, Japan, Russia and host China _ has been on hold since 2009, when Pyongyang walked away in response to international sanctions for its nuclear and missile tests.