Lee rules out 'unprincipled' inter-Korean summit

SEOUL, Nov. 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said Friday that
he has no intention of pushing for an "unprincipled" summit with North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il.

"As I have repeatedly said, I won't pursue an unprincipled inter-Korean summit
meeting. I won't seek a (summit) meeting for the meeting's sake. That's my
consistent thought," Lee was quoted as saying in a meeting with his foreign and
security policy advisers.
Lee made the remarks after one of the advisers recommended that North Korea's
nuclear program and human rights records be the top agenda item during an
inter-Korean summit, if held, according to his senior press secretary Lee
Dong-kwan.
Recent media reports said that senior aides of President Lee and North Korea's
Kim met in Singapore to discuss the possibility of a third inter-Korean summit,
though Lee's office denied them. The North Korean leader met with Lee's liberal
predecessors in 2000 and 2007.
Lee's conservative government has said that an inter-Korean summit would only
happen if Pyongyang first agreed to completely give up its nuclear ambitions.
The South Korean leader recently put forward the so-called "grand bargain"
proposal calling on the communist North to abandon its nuclear programs in a
single step, instead of in phases, in return for security, diplomatic and
economic incentives.
According to the presidential secretary, Lee again explained the concept of his
grand bargain proposal at the meeting held at the presidential office Cheong Wa
Dae.
"I explained the concept as a package deal, and the U.S. side favorably
responded, asking whether the concept means a grand bargain. We have presented a
broad principle and it is desirable that its details should be made concrete
through consultations among member countries of the six-party talks," the
president was quoted as saying.
Earlier this week, the president also stressed his principles of policy
consistency towards North Korea.
"The government's policy towards North Korea has been consistent. The government
is firm in its determination to form a future-oriented inter-Korean relationship
on the basis of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the principles of
co-prosperity and co-existence," Lee said in his parliamentary address Monday.
ycm@yna.co.kr
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