Cheong Wa Dae denies report of N. Korean leader's summit proposal

SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak is fully prepared
and ready to hold a third inter-Korean summit with North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il if conditions are met, but no such summit has been proposed by either
side, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Monday.
The remarks came in response to reports by the country's major dailies that the
North Korean leader proposed holding a summit with Lee in a message delivered
Sunday by a group of North Korean delegates who came to pay respects to late
former President Kim Dae-jung.
Lee met with three of the six-member delegation, including Kim Ki-nam, a
secretary of the North's Workers' Party of Korea and close aide to Kim Jong-il,
as part of what Cheong Wa Dae called the "protocol" for foreign delegates to the
late Kim's state funeral.
"There were only general discussions on the development of South-North relations
at President Lee's meeting with the North Korean delegation, and no issues
related to an inter-Korean summit, as reported by some news outlets, were
discussed," the office of the secretary to the president for foreign affairs and
national security said in a press release.

An official from the office told Yonhap that the president and the North Korean
officials agreed on the need to resume dialogue between their countries, but that
the North Korean leader's message did not include any proposal for a summit.
President Lee has repeatedly said his government, as well as himself, were ready
to meet with their North Korean counterparts "at any time and any place," but
only if North Korea sincerely wishes to resolve pending issues, including its
nuclear ambitions, through such dialogue.
Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said on Sunday that the president explained
to the visiting North Korean officials Seoul's firm and consistent policy on
North Korea.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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