Nobel Peace laureates on Friday delivered messages for peace on the Korean Peninsula and in the world at the Gwangju Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates. Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, a co-chair of the summit, said in his keynote address the division of the peninsula was the product of confrontation of two former superpowers and the Cold War, but Korea should not be held hostage to the interest of superpowers. ¡°It will take some time to resolve issues on the peninsula, and they need to be settled by South and North Korea in national terms,¡± he added.
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President Roh Mo-hyun delivers an address at the opening ceremony of the Gwangju Nobel Peace Laureate Summit in the city on Friday morning.
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UN Secretary-General Kofi Anann in a video message said permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula was one of the top priorities for the global community and must be achieved by diplomacy. He stressed the need for a comprehensive solution embracing security, military, economic and political means to establish a peace agreement between North and South.
¡°The biggest reason that the two Koreas have failed to make satisfactory progress in improving their relationship is the tense relations between North Korea and the U.S.,¡¯ former president Kim Dae-jung, the other co-chair of the summit, said in his keynote speech. ¡°And the problem causing conflict between the two now is the North¡¯s nuclear ambitions. The North must abandon its nuclear weapons program and have its abandonment verified, while the U.S. needs to guarantee the North¡¯s security and lift economic sanctions.¡±
Hosted by Gwangju City and Yonsei University¡¯s Kim Dae-jung Presidential Library and Museum, the summit is attended by five Nobel Peace Prize winners -- Kim, Gorbachev, the co-founder of Peace People of Northern Island Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi and Kenyan peace activist Wangari Maathai -- and seven other human rights prize winners.
The participants paid homage at the cemetery for those who died during the Gwangju Democratic Uprising, while the forum was themed around the spirit of the 1980 protests. The summit ends on Saturday with a ¡°Gwangju Declaration¡± expressing participants¡¯ commitment to peace.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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