Talk of Third Inter-Korean Summit Emerges Despite Clear Agenda

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- Although there has not been any definitive moves, talk of a third inter-Korean summit reemerged last week when South Korean President Lee Myung-bak raised the possibility of such a meeting within the year. The issue surfaced after Lee told British public broadcaster BBC that he is willing to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il anytime and even this year.

The Jan. 29 interview with Lee took place in Davos, Switzerland, where he was
attending the two-day World Economic Forum. Lee said he could meet Kim later this
year if conditions were right, but that he did not want to "place any definitive
time" on a summit. He demanded that there should be no preconditions for the
meeting, adding that such a summit could help ease tensions on the Korean
Peninsula and resolve the nuclear standoff with the North.
President Lee's remarks about the potential summit came as the North fired a
barrage of artillery shells for three consecutive days in what it said were
military exercises near the West Sea border with the South.
The proposed inter-Korean summit would be the third such after earlier meetings
between leaders of the two Koreas in 2000 and 2007 and would be aimed at luring
the North back to the multilateral nuclear talks and thawing inter-Korean ties.
Relations between North and South Korea chilled after the 2008 inauguration of
the conservative South Korean president and the North's missile tests and second
nuclear detonation last year.
A senior presidential official noted Lee's comments only reaffirm his basic
position that he is ready to have a meeting with Kim whenever all conditions for
the talks have been met. But Seoul's latest show of flexibility has raised hopes
for an inter-Korean summit despite lingering differences over the agenda.
South and North Korea have reportedly been engaged in a tug of war since October
last year over the content of a possible summit agreement regarding Pyongyang's
nuclear programs, South Korean prisoners of war and abductees held in the North,
as well as Seoul's food and fertilizer aid, according to sources. The sides
failed to narrow differences in their last meeting in mid-November.
Since his inauguration in 2008, Lee has insisted that Seoul will not seek a
summit if it requires compromising his "principled" position, which prioritizes
the North's denuclearization and emphasizes Pyongyang's reciprocal action for
Seoul's assistance. In a televised town hall meeting on Nov. 27, he made public
two conditions for the summit. He said the meeting will be possible only if the
North shows its willingness to deal with its nuclear disarmament, and
repatriation of war prisoners and abducted civilians.
In the interview in Davos last week, the president did not mention the sensitive
issues. He only demanded "a fruitful and sufficient discussion on the North
Korean nuclear issue. "There should be no preconditions for an open-minded
meeting for reconciliation and cooperation," he added. The comment could be seen
as an indication that Seoul will focus on the nuclear arsenal and not attach
demands for an agreement on repatriation as a precondition.
President Lee made the point again, demanding that the North should consider his
"grand bargain" proposal involving Pyongyang's denuclearization in exchange for
massive aid and security guarantees by the international community. In an
interview with CNN aired Jan. 30, he said his initiative is gathering consensus
among other members of the six-party talks. "The time is approaching for North
Korea to answer the question of whether it is ultimately going to drop its
nuclear programs or not," he said.
Sources said the North Korean leader expressed his hopes for a summit when his
emissaries met Lee in Seoul in August and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met Kim in
Pyongyang in October.
Reports also say there was a secret meeting between the two Koreas in Singapore
during that month. Yim Tae-hee, South Korea's labor minister, and Kim Yang-gon,
director of the United Front Department of North Korea's Workers' Party,
tentatively agreed to a draft summit accord in which the North would speak about
its return to the six-party talks, the South would promise to provide 100,000
tons of rice and the North would allow one POW and one abductee to visit the
South.
South Korean delegates did not insist on a return visit by Kim Jong-il to Seoul.
The previous two summit meetings in 2000 and 2007 were held in Pyongyang and Kim
himself promised in 2000 to hold the next summit in Seoul.
In November, the South raised the stakes, demanding the North send back a number
of POWs and abductees and informed it that food aid should not necessarily be on
the summit agenda but be linked to progress in overall relations. During
negotiations between the two sides last November, Seoul demanded that a summit
statement include a clear expression of the North's willingness to give up its
nuclear programs, while the North insisted on the more vague "progress in the
nuclear issue," sources said.
After failing to close their differences, the North intensified its criticism of
Seoul's Unification Ministry while Lee stated that he would not hold a summit
simply for its own sake.
Lee's turnabout last week indicated that some progress may have been made between
the two sides, despite continued denial by his aides. But the North has still
refused to return to the six-nation denuclearization talks since it walked out of
them last year to protest tougher U.N. sanctions against its long-range missile
launches and its second nuclear test. The North has been urged to come back to
the six-party process and make good on its commitment to complete, verifiable and
irrevocable denuclearization.
Experts expect the summit may take place in March or April at the earliest, or
between June and September at the latest. Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said he
expects the six-party talks to be resumed in February and crucial international
nuclear meetings are scheduled for April and May in Washington.
Apparently conscious of South Korean conservatives opposition to the inter-Korean
summit, President Lee Myung-bak on Feb. 2 made it clear that Seoul will not
reward Pyongyang for agreeing to an inter-Korean summit. "The leaders of the two
Koreas should meet under a premise that there can be no reward for a summit," the
president said during a Cabinet meeting.
Sources said Pyongyang asked for rice and fertilizer aid during negotiations late
last year. The former Kim Dae-jung administration secretly offered a huge amount
of cash to the North around the first inter-Korean summit in 2000. His successor
Roh Moo-hyun promised massive economic assistant when he met with North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang in 2007.
Lee has criticized his predecessors for "buying" their summits, which they
exploited for domestic political gains. He suspected a bulk of Seoul's assistance
may have been channeled into the North's military and weapons programs, rather
than feeding its populace. "The South-North summit can be pushed under a firm
principle (of no reward). Unless the principle holds true, a summit is
impossible," he said.
The Lee administration pledged to turn inter-Korean ties into a normal diplomatic
relationship, breaking with the past practice of Seoul's unilateral assistance
without the North reciprocating.
Unification Minister Hyun In-taek said Feb. 2 that if a summit takes place, the
North Korean nuclear weapons program should be the principal agenda item. "It is
desirable that practical progress in the North Korean nuclear issue should be
made (during the summit)," Hyun said in a press conference.
In Washington on Feb. 1, the U.S. expressed support for President Lee's plan to
meet with Kim Jong-il over the nuclear dismantlement. "We have had our own
discussions with North Korean officials," State Department spokesman Philip
Crowley said.
"We understand our partners in the six-party process likewise have had
conversations, and we encourage dialogue." Crowley was responding to Lee's
announcement that he is ready to meet with Kim this year to help resolve the
North Korean nuclear impasse and other issues.
Crowley echoed Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg. "We strongly support
President Lee and the very clear path he set forward about what is necessary to
achieve peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," Steinberg said last week.
"I am confident whatever form of engagement the South Korean government achieves,
we will do this through close cooperation."
Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy, visited
Pyongyang in December in the first high-level contact during the Obama
administration, but failed to secure a commitment from the North to come back to
the six-party talks. Pyongyang demands the sanctions be lifted and a peace treaty
be signed to replace the armistice that ended the three-year Korean War in 1953
before it returns to the table.
On Feb. 3, South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said denuclearization has
to be an important topic of any future summit between the leaders of South and
North Korea, a subject rarely discussed between the divided states outside of
six-nation nuclear negotiations. The government's basic position is that we can
hold a South-North summit at any time as long as it is in line with our
principles and will help solve the North Korean nuclear issue," the minister said
in an interview with local cable news network YTN.
(END)