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ROK: Summit should help resolve nuke dispute

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-25 09:40

SEOUL: A summit between the two Koreas should help resolve the dispute over the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) nuclear programs, a Republic of Korea's (ROK) official said, as an envoy for the DPRK met with a US government negotiator in likely pursuit of bilateral talks with Washington.

DPRK's No. 2 nuclear negotiator, Ri Gun, has traveled to the US on the invitation of private organizations and met on Saturday in New York with the chief US nuclear negotiator Sung Kim, a State Department spokesman said.

Kim conveyed "our position on denuclearization and the six-party talks," spokesman Noel Clay said in a statement.

The US says it is willing to have direct talks with the DPRK if it leads to resumption of six-party talks aimed at halting the DPRK's nuclear weapons programs that also include the ROK, China, Russia and Japan. The ROK also says that progress on efforts to rid the country of its nuclear arsenal is key to a summit between the Korean leaders taking place.

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Pyongyang's reported push for a summit and talks with Washington is part of a series of conciliatory moves in recent months after escalating tensions with nuclear and missile tests.

Analysts have said the moves show the DPRK feels the pain of UN sanctions following its May nuclear test.

The DPRK and the United States do not have diplomatic relations. Ri was given permission to visit the US for unofficial meetings that include the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue, a forum sponsored by the University of California-San Diego.

Clay said that Kim and principal deputy assistant secretary of defense, Derek J. Mitchell, would participate in the San Diego forum which begins on Sunday. The sessions will also include government officials and scholars from China, Russia, Japan and the ROK.

As the DPRK's negotiator prepared for his US trip, media in the ROK reported that senior officials of the two Koreas met in Singapore last week to discuss a possible meeting between the DPRK's leader Kim Jong-il and the ROK President Lee Myung-bak.

Pyongyang first asked for the meeting, but the talks ended without agreement as Seoul demanded that the Kim visit the ROK, and the DPRK balked at the demand citing security concerns, The ROK's largest television network KBS reported Thursday. It cited an unidentified ROK official.

Officials  from the ROK have declined to confirm the reports, but Lee Dong-kwan, senior presidential secretary for public relations, said Saturday a summit "should be helpful to progress in the resolution of North Korea's nuclear issue."

The ROK officials stress that progress in international efforts to rid the DPRK of its nuclear weapons programs is key to such a summit taking place.

"Our government's position remains unchanged that we would not hold a meeting for meeting's sake," Lee said in comments posted on the ROK's presidential Web site.

Kim Jong-il has held summits with his ROK counterparts twice: the first in 2000 with the then-President Kim Dae-jung and the other in 2007 with then-President Roh Moo-hyun.

Relations between the two Koreas frayed badly after the more conservative Lee took office early last year. Pyongyang pulled out of the six-party disarmament talks in April, but Kim Jong-il said earlier this month that the DPRK could rejoin them depending on progress in its possible one-on-one negotiations with the US.