Koreas put off rare summit to October due to floods

SEOUL, Aug 18 (Reuters) The two Koreas agreed today to postpone until Oct 2-4 the rare summit they were due to hold this month due to the flooding that has killed hundreds of people and made more than 300,000 homeless in the North.

''The government has decided to accept the North's proposal,'' a spokesman for South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said in a statement after Pyongyang asked for the summit to be postponed.

''The government has notified the North of President Roh Moo-hyun's visit to Pyongyang on October 2-4,'' he added.

The meeting, originally set for August 28-30, will be only the second between leaders of Asia's fourth-biggest economy and its impoverished, communist neighbour in the north, which have been divided since the end of World War Two and are still technically at war.

North Korea proposed delaying the summit today ''considering the urgency of recovery work on the floods'' and suggested the South pick a convenient date, Roh's spokesman said.

He added that Pyongyang had not changed its position on the summmit -- which will be the first summit in seven years -- and had ''asked for our understanding and agreement''.

North Korea and the United Nations said yesterday that more than a week of heavy rain had ruined crops and farmland in a country that does not produce enough food to feed itself, even with a good harvest.

South Korea is sending emergency aid worth 7.1 billion won (7.5 millionn dollars) to its neighbour.

The United States, whose relations with North Korea are deeply strained by Pyongyang's pursuit of nuclear weapons, said yesterday it would give 100,000 dollars to buy blankets, shelter materials, water and other items for victims of the floods.

REUTERS AE BST1304