YONHAP NEWS

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

By Byun Duk-kun
SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak is fully prepared and ready to hold an 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 a summit with Lee in a verbal 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.

   Pyongyang's delegation met the president after extending its stay by a day.
"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.

   "The government's consistent North Korea policy is that we will help North Korea if the North gives up its nuclear ambitions," Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Lee Dong-kwan told a press briefing.

   "Dialogue is possible at any time and at any level, but this (the policy) says an inter-Korean summit or South-North dialogue similar to those of the past are not acceptable," he added.

   The Cheong Wa Dae spokesman earlier said the president had explained this firm and consistent North Korea policy to the North Koreans on Sunday and that he had also asked them to relay the message to the theirleader.

   Kim Jong-il held two inter-Korean summits, one with the late Kim Dae-jung in 2000 and another with his successor in 2007. Cross-border relations plunged to their worst level in a decade after the Lee Myung-bak government was inaugurated 18 months ago with a pledge to take a tougher stance on North Korean nuclear programs.

   bdk@yna.co.kr
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