- Sputnik International
World
Get the latest news from around the world, live coverage, off-beat stories, features and analysis.

Second North-South Korean summit to take place Aug. 28-30-1

Subscribe
North and South Korea will hold their second ever summit in Pyongyang on August 28-30, Seoul's presidential administration and the North's official news agency reported Wednesday.
(Corrects name in para 3, adds Russian Foreign Ministry comments in paras 4-5)

TOKYO, August 8 (RIA Novosti) - North and South Korea will hold their second ever summit in Pyongyang on August 28-30, Seoul's presidential administration and the North's official news agency reported Wednesday.

"The second inter-Korean summit should contribute to peace and wellbeing on the Korean peninsula. The talks will also give a boost to resolving the North Korea nuclear problem," the South Korean presidential administration said.

Talks between South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong il will take place seven years after the first groundbreaking summit of the North's leader with South Korea's then president, Kim Dae-jung, also in Pyongyang.

Russian Foreign Ministry hailed the initiative. "We expect the coming meeting to help consolidate peace, stability and cooperation in the Korean peninsula and the entire Northeast Asian region, giving a new impetus to settling the Korean nuclear problem with key nations in the region and putting large-scale tripartite partnership projects involving Russia and North and South Korea into practice," said Boris Malakhov, deputy spokesman for the Foreign Ministry.

The diplomat said that Russia has always favored steps by the two Korean states towards an independent and peaceful unification.

The 2000 summit marked a thaw in relations and led to economic benefits for the impoverished Communist North. The new summit comes after North Korea shut down its only operating nuclear reactor, a source of weapons-grade plutonium, last month in exchange for economic and diplomatic incentives under a February six-nation deal.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала