Koreas seek formal end to Korean War
Friday, 5 October 2007
SEOUL, Oct 4 (Reuters): Leaders of the two Koreas agreed Thursday to try to bring peace to the Cold War's last frontier, just a day after the North signed up to an international deal to disable its nuclear facilities.
But some analysts said the pledges at only the second summit between North and South Korea were limited, with the hermit North clearly reluctant to break much new ground.
"North and South Korea shared the view they must end the current armistice and build a permanent peace regime," President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il said in a joint statement at the end of their three-day meeting in Pyongyang.
They will push for talks next month with China and the United States to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War which technically is still going on because a peace treaty has yet to be signed.
The two leaders also agreed to set up the first regular freight train service for half a century, linking two countries divided by a heavily fortified border.
There will also be meetings of ministers and defence officials and the establishment of a cooperation zone around a contested sea border on the west of the Korean peninsula.
The summit ended just a day after North Korea agreed to disable the three main nuclear facilities at its Yongbyon site -- and a source of material for atomic weapons -- and provide a full declaration of all its nuclear programmes by the end of the year.
US President George W. Bush was quick to praise the nuclear deal with North Korea, a country he once linked with Iran and pre-invasion Iraq as members of an "axis of evil."
He even held up North Korea as a possible model for resolving the nuclear standoff with Iran.
South Korea's Roh went to the summit declaring it would make the peninsula safer and help the North's shattered economy, but many analysts were doubtful he would be able to win concessions from the reclusive Kim Jong-il.
The summit got off to a cool start when Kim Jong-il gave what looked to be a surly welcome to Roh on his arrival in Pyongyang, and the two men appeared together on only a few occasions.
South Korean officials say relations can improve only gradually and that a collapse of the North would be so catastrophic for wealthy South Korea that they were prepared to pump billions of dollars into their neighbour's economy.
While the communist North has plunged into poverty and maverick isolation, its southern neighbour has mushroomed into the world's 13th most powerful economy and a global leader in a number of industries.
Wednesday's agreement to disable the Yongbyon complex came a year after North Korea tested a nuclear device, earning it international sanctions that analysts say have hit hard.
But some analysts said the pledges at only the second summit between North and South Korea were limited, with the hermit North clearly reluctant to break much new ground.
"North and South Korea shared the view they must end the current armistice and build a permanent peace regime," President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il said in a joint statement at the end of their three-day meeting in Pyongyang.
They will push for talks next month with China and the United States to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War which technically is still going on because a peace treaty has yet to be signed.
The two leaders also agreed to set up the first regular freight train service for half a century, linking two countries divided by a heavily fortified border.
There will also be meetings of ministers and defence officials and the establishment of a cooperation zone around a contested sea border on the west of the Korean peninsula.
The summit ended just a day after North Korea agreed to disable the three main nuclear facilities at its Yongbyon site -- and a source of material for atomic weapons -- and provide a full declaration of all its nuclear programmes by the end of the year.
US President George W. Bush was quick to praise the nuclear deal with North Korea, a country he once linked with Iran and pre-invasion Iraq as members of an "axis of evil."
He even held up North Korea as a possible model for resolving the nuclear standoff with Iran.
South Korea's Roh went to the summit declaring it would make the peninsula safer and help the North's shattered economy, but many analysts were doubtful he would be able to win concessions from the reclusive Kim Jong-il.
The summit got off to a cool start when Kim Jong-il gave what looked to be a surly welcome to Roh on his arrival in Pyongyang, and the two men appeared together on only a few occasions.
South Korean officials say relations can improve only gradually and that a collapse of the North would be so catastrophic for wealthy South Korea that they were prepared to pump billions of dollars into their neighbour's economy.
While the communist North has plunged into poverty and maverick isolation, its southern neighbour has mushroomed into the world's 13th most powerful economy and a global leader in a number of industries.
Wednesday's agreement to disable the Yongbyon complex came a year after North Korea tested a nuclear device, earning it international sanctions that analysts say have hit hard.