Korean leaders in historic summit

Monday, 1 October 2007

Leaders of the two Koreas are preparing to meet each other in only the second top-level summit between the two sides.

South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun says forging a permanent peace between the countries will be his top priority when he meets the North's Kim Jong-il.

He plans to cross the heavily fortified border on foot in a symbolic gesture.

The 1950-53 war between the two countries has never formally ended, but the government in Seoul has been building hopes for a permanent truce.

It says this summit may pave the way for that historic step.

"Many issues will be discussed but I will put priority on the establishment of peace on the Korean peninsula," said Mr Roh, before his departure.

Brief reunions

The president will travel in a motorcade along with business leaders, bureaucrats, poets and clerics, to the North's capital Pyongyang.

The states' only other summit was held in the city in 2000.

At the time, Kim Jong-il promised to make the return journey to Seoul, but that has never happened.

The first summit led to the former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his "sunshine policy" of rapprochement with the North.

Since then, rail and road links have been reconnected and families divided between the two countries have been granted reunions, if only briefly.

But critics say the South's attempts at friendship and large donations of aid have failed to break down the impoverished North's isolationism or improve its human rights record.

Some observers doubt whether Kim Jong-il has any appetite for reconciliation, says the BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul.

They believe he prefers to keep his military threat to coax further economic aid and other concessions from the nervous South, our correspondent says.

Nuclear progress

The conservative opposition in South Korea has warned Mr Roh against making any "naive" economic concessions just for the sake of an agreement.

"They must know that an emotional approach to the North would bring on disasters," spokeswoman Na Kyung-won said.

One item not on the agenda is North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

That is being left for ongoing multi-party talks, which made significant progress over the weekend.

A joint statement setting out the next step in the denuclearisation progress was agreed, and has been sent for approval to the six governments involved, including the two Koreas.