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Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok on Friday said President Roh Moo-hyun¡¯s offer to Pyongyang this week of an ¡°unconditional¡± summit could provide a fresh solution to the nuclear standoff with North Korea.
¡°The government has not taken the position that a second inter-Korean summit would be possible only once the North Korean nuclear issue is resolved,¡± Lee told an interviewer. ¡°The government already took the view that an inter-Korean summit might have positive effects on addressing the North Korean nuclear problem.¡± The minister made the remarks on an MBC radio show.
He added North Korea ¡°gave us a positive response to a second inter-Korean summit, but it hasn¡¯t been decided when to hold one yet because the North said it would select a date.¡± Roh on Wednesday told Korean residents in Mongolia he would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il ¡°anytime, anywhere.¡±
Lee said the resumption of stalled six-party talks on the nuclear standoff remained a policy objective of the U.S., ¡°even though there are some in the U.S. who say it is not.¡± ¡°Seoul plans to play a more active role in the matter because the U.S. has its own limitations,¡± the minister said. ¡°So it is wrong to say that Seoul is trying to go it alone independent of Washington.¡± Lee also spoke to an imminent visit to the North by former president Kim Dae-jung, insisting Kim ¡°is not visiting the North in the capacity of an envoy.¡±
Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry's special envoy on international security, Moon Chung-in, in a phone interview with the Chosun Ilbo elaborated on remarks a day earlier that Roh ¡°is losing patience with U.S. President George W. Bush.¡± Asked whether a clash in North Korea policy between Seoul and Washington looms, Moon said, ¡°We have not come up with any concrete measures yet and the situation will be determined by how Seoul coordinates its measures with Washington.¡± But he added, ¡°If the U.S. cannot accept the measures we take, it may create a rift between Seoul and Washington.¡± Observers here have suggested that Roh¡¯s offer is at loggerheads with a U.S. policy increasingly predicated on isolating the North.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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