Second Korea summit will be even better-ex-minister

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

SEOUL, Aug 8 (Reuters) One of the main architects of the first summit, seven years ago, between the two feuding Koreas said today he expected the second one set for this month to be even more productive.

As unification minister, Park Jae-kyu was instrumental in setting up the breakthrough 2000 meeting when the President Kim Dae-jung went to Pyongyang to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

''The mood is much better than the (2000) summit,'' Park told Reuters, pointing to progress in implementing a nuclear disarmament deal agreed early this year with regional powers.

The two Koreas earlier announced that the summit would be in Pyongyang on August 28-30. It follows moves by Pyongyang to implement an agreement with regional powers to end its nuclear weapons programmes in return for massive aid.

''I think it is an opportunity to produce a much better agreement under much improved circumstances,'' said Park, who now heads a provincial university.

Park brushed aside criticism that the summit would do little more than boost unpopular South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and said the mood was ripe for a major advance on peace on the Cold War's last frontier.

''It is more effective for the leaders to talk about it than other people having 100 conversations,'' Park said, referring to international discussions to end Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme and sign a peace treaty.

The two Koreas remain technically at war under a truce ending the 1950-53 Korean War.

Park said the Kim Jong-il he knows from the 2000 summit ''is positive, straight forward and bold,'' willing to make compromises and ready to strike a deal, even if it means taking his time to put it into work, such as his promise to visit Seoul one day.

REUTERS SG SSC1420

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