YONHAP NEWS

(LEAD) Seoul says 'misunderstanding' to blame for U.S. comment on N. Korea summit proposal

By Byun Duk-kun
SEOUL/WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Sunday dismissed a U.S. official's comment that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has invited South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to a summit in Pyongyang, saying there was an apparent "misunderstanding."

   In a briefing to reporters on U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates' trip to Asia, a Pentagon official said the North Korean leader was seeking a summit with his South Korean counterpart.

   "Now suddenly we reached charm face with North Korea, with Kim Jong-il inviting Lee Myung-bak of the Republic of Korea to visit Pyongyang, with (Premier) Wen Jiabao from China going to visit Pyongyang," the official said in the background briefing, under customary condition of anonymity.

   An official at Seoul's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said there appears to have been a misunderstanding on the U.S. part of what Seoul has briefed Washington regarding Lee's recent meeting with Premier Wen.

   In a trilateral summit that also involved Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Wen said the North was hoping to improve its ties with South Korea and Japan.

   Wen made a high-profile trip to Pyongyang earlier this month for a meeting with the North Korean leader, who also told Wen that his country may rejoin international dialogue on ending its nuclear ambitions depending on the outcome of bilateral talks with the U.S.

   The Cheong Wa Dae official said that at the summit between Lee and Wen, an inter-Korean summit was only mentioned in the context that it could be possible if the South-North relationship improves.

   "We briefed the U.S. administration on the outcome of the summit (with China), and I think there must have been some kind of misunderstanding on the U.S. side," the official in Seoul told reporters.

   Pentagon spokesman Georf Morrell, addressing the controversy, said, "The government of President Lee Myung-bak is on record as expressing its longstanding willingness in principle to hold talks with North Korea, including at the level of the two leaders, in order to promote denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

   "Any decision regarding possible talks between South and North Korea, however, would be made by the Republic of Korea," he said.

   Lee Dong-kwan, top secretary to the South Korean president on public relations, said what was important was not whether there had been in an invitation from the North Korean leader, but whether such a meeting will lead to any actual progress.

   "The president has repeatedly stressed that he will welcome a meeting with North Korean leader Kim at any time, but that such a meeting will be meaningless unless they are both sincerely willing to make progress," he said.

   bdk@yna.co.kr
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