(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-01 22:36

South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung answers a reporter's question in front of a signboard of the inter-Korean summit at a media center in Seoul, Octoboer 1, 2007. [Reuters]

SEOUL - South Korea's president said on Monday he would use the second ever summit between the leaders of the divided Koreas to press for peace and an eventual arms cut along one of the world's most heavily militarized borders.

Roh Moo-Hyun will lead a motorcade from Seoul on Tuesday across the border for a historic 150-minute trip to Pyongyang for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il that runs through Thursday.

"It will not be an uneventful course, but once discussions on a peace regime get under way in earnest, we can take up building military confidence and a peace treaty, and furthermore the issue of arms reduction," Roh said in a televised speech.

South Korean officials have said they do not want to spoil the mood of the summit between the states technically still at war by pressing Pyongyang on its nuclear weapons program.

They are not sure if Kim will greet Roh when he arrives.

Roh said his top summit agenda item would be establishing greater peace along the Cold War's last frontier.

South Korea's ability to seek a peace treaty is limited because it was not a signatory to the ceasefire that ended the 1950-1953 Korean War. US-led forces signed the agreement.

US President George W. Bush has said he is ready to discuss a peace treaty once the country scraps its atomic arms.

"I do not believe that the peace regime could be actually resolved through the two parties alone," South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-Joung told a news conference in Seoul.

Six-country talks on ending Pyongyang's atomic arms program recessed on Sunday allowing delegates a chance to discuss with their government a joint statement that includes plans for permanently disabling the North's plants that make bomb-grade plutonium.

"I do not believe that the outcome of the six-party talks will have an impact on how the summit will proceed," Lee said.

The first summit in June 2000 -- also held in Pyongyang -- broke the ice in the two states' Cold War rivalry and launched economic and humanitarian projects.

Officials said Roh might propose new projects to rebuild the North's infrastructure and develop joint economic zones in North Korea.