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Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during a recent Pyongyang visit to the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics on Aug.8 in Beijing, the Asahi Shimbun reported Sunday. The Japanese newspaper quoted a remark made Saturday by Taku Yamasaki, former deputy president of Prime Minster Yasuo Fukuda's Liberal Democratic Party.
The Japanese weekly Shukan Bunshun reported that the objective of Xi¡¯s visit to North Korea was to arrange a summit between Kim and U.S. President George W. Bush in Beijing, adding a personal letter from Chinese president Hu Jintao was delivered to Kim. Both South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Bush are to attend the opening ceremony. If Kim comes, both an inter-Korean summit and a North Korea-U.S. summit would be a possibility -- potentially an epochal breakthrough in the process of denuclearization of the North.
But talks on denuclearization have to make considerable progress before the opening ceremony, insiders say. ¡°We can consider having such meetings in Beijing if North Korea accepts everything requested by the U.S. regarding the verification of the list detailing its nuclear stockpile, and visible progress is made on the roadmap toward ultimate abandonment of North Korea¡¯s nuclear weapons,¡± a diplomatic source said.
However, many in the government believe it is unlikely Kim will show up. ¡°Since Xi himself invited Kim, some top ranking North Korean official is likely to attend the opening ceremony, but the chance of Kim showing up at the ceremony is extremely slim,¡± another diplomatic source said. He added it will be most likely the North's no. 2, Kim Yong-nam, the president of the Supreme People's Assembly. But a government official said even a meeting of Kim Yong-nam with either Lee or Bush itself ¡°would make for a historic event.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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