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Report ignites speculation of possible inter-Korean summit
SEOUL/PHNOM PENH, Oct. 23 (Yonhap) -- Officials of South and North Korea secretly met in Singapore to discuss a possible summit between their leaders, South Korea's state broadcaster KBS reported Thursday, quoting unidentified sources.
However, Seoul's presidential office refused to give a definitive response when asked about the meeting.
"There is nothing we can confirm as of now," a Cheong Wa Dae official accompanying President Lee Myung-bak on a trip to Cambodia told reporters.
The KBS report suggested a ranking South Korean official recently visited Singapore for a meeting with Kim Yang-gon, Pyongyang's point man on Seoul, who was seen arriving in Beijing last Thursday from a trip to an undisclosed nation.
The report followed a recent comment by the U.S. Department of Defense claiming North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had invited President Lee to Pyongyang for a summit.
The U.S. comment was quickly dismissed by Cheong Wa Dae as a misunderstanding by Washington. The White House confirmed Seoul's position.
Speculation about an inter-Korean summit flared when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, after his high-profile trip to Pyongyang and talks with Kim Jong-il earlier this month, said the North Korean leader wants to improve ties with Seoul.
An official within Seoul's diplomatic circle more readily dismissed the KBS report, calling it a complete fiction.
"The recent reports regarding a South-North summit are completely false. There is nothing being discussed between the two at this time," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.
An official from the unification ministry dismissed the possibility of a ministry official attending the suspected meeting in Singapore, saying no ranking official has taken a trip to Singapore or Beijing in recent days.
The two Koreas have held two summit talks since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, in 2000 and 2007.
Lee earlier said he is open to any type of dialogue with North Korea, but that a summit will only be possible after the communist North expresses its willingness to completely abandon its nuclear ambitions.
An informed official in Seoul noted difficulties involved with a third inter-Korean summit, saying President Lee will not likely take a trip to the communist North until the North Korean leader visits the South Korean capital to reciprocate visits by South Korea's two former presidents to Pyongyang.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)
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