South Korea's Roh may take rail or road to North

North Korean dancers perform during the Arirang Grand Mass gymnastics and artistic performance at the May Day stadium in Pyongyang, Monday. The leaders of North and South Korea will meet this month for the second time since the peninsula’s division after World War II. / AP-Yonhap


South Korea's Roh may take rail or road to North
Thu Aug 9, 2007 5:02 AM EDT

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's president may use a newly built rail link with North Korea or lead one of the biggest convoys of civilian vehicles from Seoul to Pyongyang for a summit this month, a South Korean official said on Thursday.
North and South Korea announced on Wednesday that President Roh Moo-hyun will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il from Aug 28-30 for only the second summit of the two countries in more than 50 years.
"We plan to request that the president and delegates travel by land," Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung told reporters. "I believe the North will be able to accept our request."
The two countries are technically still at war.
South Korea proposed to the North that preparatory talks to discuss the mode of travel as well as the agenda, security and protocol for the summit begin on Monday in Kaesong, just north of the border, a ministry official said.
For the first summit, in June 2000, then President Kim Dae-jung flew to Pyongyang, where he was greeted by wild cheers and a beaming Kim Jong-il at the airport.
After that summit, the two Koreas pledged to punch holes through the razor-wire fences that stretch across their heavily mined and guarded border by building road and rail links.
South and North Korea sent the first trains across their border since the 1950-53 Korean War on a test run in May. Seoul, which has been pressing for regular train runs, reconnected the lines and was only able to secure the one-off crossing after pledging some $80 million in aid for the North's industries.
Lee declined to say whether Roh and delegates would use the newly opened rail link, which in theory makes it possible for a train to travel from the southern end of the peninsula through the North and up to the Chinese border.
South Korea has also built highways into North Korea that run parallel to the two rail links -- one northwest of Seoul and the other on the east coast.
In one of the more unusual crossings, the South's Hyundai Group sponsored a convoy of vehicles carrying 1,000 people and 100 head of cattle to North Korea on aid and reconciliation mission in 2003.

© Reuters 2007.

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Who Will Accompany Roh?


By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter

Following the announcement of an inter-Korean summit, attention is being given to who will accompany President Roh Moo-hyun to Pyongyang.
Considering the delegation with former President Kim Dae-jung at the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, Roh's retinue is expected to be similar in scope, with figures from politics, business, culture and sports fields taking part.
The accompanying members are likely to be divided into the government's official delegation and special delegation, like the first summit.
In 2000, then-chief presidential secretary Han Kwang-ok, Unification Minister Park Jae-kyu, senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs and security Hwang Won-tak accompanied former President Kim in the official delegation. Then Culture and Tourism Minister Park Jie-won and National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Lim Dong-won, who arranged the meeting as presidential envoys, were also included.
The official delegation this time is likely to include Moon Jae-in, Roh's chief of staff; Baek Jong-chun, chief presidential secretary for unification, foreign and security policy; Lee Jae-Jeong, unification minister; Yun Byung-se, senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs and security; and Kim Man-bok, the NIS chief who arranged the summit.
For the special delegation, leaders of political parties and figures from other social fields may accompany the president. In 2000, Lee Hae-chan, then-chief policymaker of the Millennium Democratic Party,; Rep. Lee Wan-gu of United Liberal Democrats; Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Yun Jong-yong; Korea Sports Council head Kim Un-yong; and Association of Writers for National Literature adviser Ko Un visited Pyongyang for the summit.
People are also interested in whether the North's dear leader himself would greet Roh at the airport or railway station on his arrival. In 2000, Kim Jong-il came to meet former President Kim at the airport and they drove to the latter's hotel together by limousine.
What food and drink they will have is also at the center of attention. The North Korean food former President Kim enjoyed had became popular in the South at that time. The two leaders drank wine in 2000, and it is to be seen whether Kim and Roh will have wine or traditional Korean alcohol.
Roh is likely to stay at Baekhwawon, where North Korea's national guests usually stay. The summit may be held there as well.
About 10-12 bodyguards are expected to guard the leaders of the two Koreas, as in the first summit.

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr

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(EDITORIAL from the Korea Herald on Aug. 11)

A working summit

The upcoming inter-Korea summit should aim to be different from the previous one, at least in one crucial respect. It should pay due attention to practical issues, rather than focus on a grand design for a reunified Korea, as the first summit did seven years ago.
South Koreans had high expectations for peace when former President Kim Dae-jung went to Pyongyang for the first inter-Korea summit in June 2000. Many believed that they would be freed from the threat of another Korean War if Kim Dae-jung agreed on reconciliation and cooperation with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
To his surprise, Kim Dae-jung was received by Kim Jong-il himself at the airport, and was greeted by thousands of flag-waving well-wishers apparently mobilized to line the road to Pyongyang. He and his delegation were also better treated than required by protocol at banquets and other gala events.
Pomp and extravaganza found their way into the Joint South-North Declaration as well, which reads in part that the two leaders had a historic summit, "true to the noble will of all the fellow countrymen for the peaceful reunification of the country."
The two leaders focused on grand ideas -- peaceful reunification and balanced economic development. But they did not pay due attention to such practical issues as the repatriation of South Koreans held in the North against their will.
Such a lapse may be excused, given that the first summit was indeed an unprecedented, if not epoch-making, event for the mutually hostile halves. But the cold reality is that the Korean Peninsula has not been made more secure since the first summit. On the contrary, the South is under threat from the North, which tested a nuclear device last year.
Given that no agenda item is of greater importance than issues of war and peace, President Roh Moo-hyun will have to concentrate on denuclearization when he visits Pyongyang on Aug. 28-30 for talks with Kim Jong-il. Under the 1992 inter-Korean joint denuclearization declaration, Roh has every right to demand the North scrap its nuclear weapons program.
But nuclear discussions should not overshadow the plight of South Koreans held in North Korea. Roh will have to demand the repatriation of South Korean soldiers taken as prisoners of war during the 1950-53 Korean War and South Korean civilians abducted during and after the war.
The South Korean government estimates the number of prisoners of war still alive at 1,743 and that of the kidnapped at 489. But Pyongyang denies the existence of prisoners of war and claims that the others defected to the North of their own volition.
Kim Dae-jung failed to address the issue adequately for fear of disrupting the first summit, as acknowledged by a leading member of his entourage. But Roh is well advised to press hard for concessions from the North, instead of following in his predecessor's footsteps.
If necessary, Roh will have to use future aid as leverage in settling the issue. He will have to listen to a growing number of disaffected South Koreas who, awakened from the illusion about rosy inter-Korean relations, are now asking why Seoul should continue to provide food, fertilizer and other items when Pyongyang refuses to reciprocate the favor.
Quid pro quo should apply to economic areas as well. Roh cannot commit himself to the provision of huge aid for nothing in return in the name of economic cooperation, because cooperation demands reciprocity.
Roh will have to be prepared to forgo much of the ceremony accorded to Kim Dae-jung and roll up his sleeves for a hard bargaining session with Kim Jong-il. Simply put, he will need a working summit in Pyongyang.

(END)