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South Korea's Kim Dae-jung departs for historic summit in Pyongyang
SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korean President Kim Dae-jung left Seoul Tuesday for a momentous summit in North Korea, an event that offers the greatest hope for peace on the divided Korean peninsula in more than 50 years. The short flight to the North Korean capital will bring Kim face-to-face with his cross-border counterpart, Kim Jong Il. Before boarding his aircraft for the flight, South Korea's Kim downplayed expectations his visit would produce a miracle, but he expressed hopes an agreement could be reached on some of the problems in the coming months and years. In a speech from the airport tarmac, Kim also said he planned to speak frankly and openly to North Korea's Kim and asked for the best wishes and prayers of the South Korean people in his visit. Accompanied by a delegation of 130 officials and businessmen, as well as 50 South Korean reporters, Kim took off at 9.18 a.m (00.18 GMT) on a 180-km (110 miles) flight. "I hope that it will be an opportunity to remove threats of war and terminate the Cold War on the Korean peninsula so that all 70 million Korean people in the South and North can live in peace," Kim said. CNN's Mike Chinoy said the meeting was extremely sensitive and it was not known how the South Korean leader would be received in the north during the expected three days of talks. The Koreas have been locked in a Cold War standoff for more than 50 years. In the early 1950s, U.S.-led forces fought Chinese- and Soviet-backed North Korean troops in the Korean War, which ended in an armed truce and unwavering political tension.
As the years passed, the fortunes of the two countries, one communist and one pro-Western, have changed. Previously disdainful of its southern neighbor, an impoverished North Korea now is hoping for help from prosperous South Korea in the way of food and other aid. The two countries agreed to a summit in 1994. But North Korean leader Kim Il Sung died at age 82 only weeks before he was to meet with South Korean counterpart, Kim Young-sam. The summit with South Korea is being held in the same mysterious style Pyongyang has often employed over the years: No schedule was revealed ahead of the talks. In South Korea, television showed images of President Kim Dae-jung strolling with his wife Monday in the gardens of the presidential Blue House. Government officials mingled with journalists at a press center in a Seoul hotel. In the North, by contrast, there were no official pronouncements on the summit. Officials in the South explained the summit secrecy, at least in part, to concerns over the security of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. The South wants the North to agree to reunions of separated families, a summit sequel in Seoul and other conciliatory gestures in exchange for resources to rebuild the communist nation's dilapidated economy. North Korea, which suffered a deadly famine in the late 1990s, relies on food aid from its traditional foes, South Korea, Japan and the United States. Reunification, the stated goal of both nations, is likely to be a lengthy process. The first summit between leaders of East Germany and West Germany was held in 1970, two decades before the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. There are a host of touchy issues to resolve, among them North Korea's missile and nuclear programs, and the U.S. military presence in South Korea. South Korea's Kim will "broaden understanding by saying everything he wants to say," Park Joon-Young, the chief presidential spokesman, said Monday. "He will agree first on the easiest and most practical issues." Seoul officials were quick to downplay North Korea's weekend request to delay the summit by a day, until Tuesday. They said minor technical problems held up the schedule. One Blue House official said glitches in a test-run satellite transmission of television images from Pyongyang to Seoul was responsible. However, other government officials said there were no problems. The North's failure to clearly explain the delay prompted a flurry of speculation in South Korean media. The Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's biggest newspaper, said North Koreans might have been checking the safety of South Korean President Kim Dae-jung's flight path to Pyongyang. There is no direct air travel between the Korean capitals, and hundreds of thousands of troops and heavy weapons are massed on both sides of the Demilitarized Zone. Some media have reported that Kim planned to fly off the western coast before heading inland to Pyongyang. South Korean media also suggested that North Korean officials were upset over southern reports speculating on the schedule of the three-day summit. The two leaders are expected to attend state dinners together, but the North has not released the itinerary. Pyongyang is said to be extremely nervous about any negative media coverage. The regime's aversion to publicity was seen in last month's trip by Kim Jong Il to Beijing, which wasn't announced by either government until his return home. In the South, by contrast, newspapers in recent weeks printed doctored photographs depicting Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong Il smiling and shaking hands. The two have never met. A T-shirt on sale in Seoul shows a cartoon image of Kim Dae-jung on a bicycle with Kim Jong Il riding on the back, and the South Korean government plans to issue millions of stamps commemorating the summit. Men wearing masks of the two leaders have strolled the streets of Seoul ahead of the summit and on Monday, a restaurant offered free North Korea-style cold noodles to patrons. It's a far cry from 1968, when relations were so bad that a North Korean commando team infiltrated Seoul and attacked the presidential Blue House. The celebratory mood now is such that The Korea Times, an English-language daily, compared the summit to the 1969 landing of a man on the moon. "One small step for reconciliation, one giant leap for reunification," the newspaper declared. Kim Sang-mok, a 48-year-old man who has relatives in North Korea, said: "Even if they can't agree on reunification, at least they could agree that families could visit each other." Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
RELATED STORIES: U.S., North Korea to resume talks about returning soldiers' remains RELATED SITES: North Korea: Politics and Government | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The U.S. government is looking forward to the summit, as CNN's Andrea Koppel reports. (June 12)
CNN's Mike Chinoy has background on the split between the two countries.
CNN's Rebecca Mackinnon looks at the relationship between the Koreas and China.
