Roh to drive, not take train, for North Korea summit

SEOUL, Aug 14 (Reuters) South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun will drive through the militarised border with North Korea for a summit this month, instead of using a newly built rail link, the two sides agreed at preparatory talks today.

North and South Korea announced last week that Roh will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on August 28-30 in Pyongyang for only the second summit between the erstwhile foes in more than 50 years.

Roh will travel on a highway that crosses into North Korea from the town of Munsan in the South about 60 km north of Seoul, according to reports from the preparatory talks in Kaesong, just north of the border.

South Korea had proposed that Roh take the train, unlike in 2000 when then President Kim Dae-jung took a rare direct flight from Seoul to Pyongyang for the first summit. The North rejected that proposal without explanation, the reports said.

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 service, was only able to secure the one-off crossing after pledging some 80 million dollars in aid for North Korea's industries.

The governments of the two Koreas hailed the summit as a chance to bring peace to the Cold War's last frontier, which is watched over by close to two million troops and batteries of artillery and missiles.

The two sides also agreed on a broad agenda of ''peace on the Korean peninsula, joint prosperity and a new phase in efforts to reunite the country'', the reports said.

Setting a detailed agenda looks to be a formidable task -- as it was in the first summit, which opened without the two sides agreeing on what the leaders would discuss.

Roh and Kim are expected to discuss North Korea's implementation of a six-country agreement to scrap its nuclear weapons, a peace pact to replace the fraying truce that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, and massive aid to rebuild the North's failed economy, analysts have said.

Early indications are the talks will focus in large part on expanding economic ties to eventually create what Roh described as ''an economic community''.

REUTERS SBC KP1629