South Korea optimistic about progress on peninsula

September 20, 2000
Web posted at: 8:59 AM HKT (0059 GMT)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- South Korea called Tuesday for international support to achieve lasting peace on the Korean peninsula, saying the North-South summit in June and positive developments since then are only the first steps in a long process.

"Inter-Korean relations have taken a definite turn for the better," South Korea's Foreign Minister Lee Joung-binn told the U.N. General Assembly's ministerial debate.

"And the whole world stands to benefit from the liquidation of the final legacy of the Cold War that the summit appears to have set in motion on the Korean peninsula," Lee added.

Inter-Korea relations have warmed significantly since the June summit in Pyongyang, capital of the North, when South Korean leader Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pledged to put the past behind them and work together for peace.

The Koreas have since stopped propaganda broadcasts against each other and reopened border liaison offices. They allowed 200 people to cross the border in August for temporary family reunions.

Inter-Korean ministerial meetings are planned for later this month on Cheju island in South Korea, and a return visit by Kim Jong Il to Seoul, the South's capital, is expected.

"As dramatic and hopeful as the June summit and the inter-Korean developments since then have been, only the first steps have been taken in the long process of ending the Cold War and settling lasting peace on the Korean peninsula," foreign minister Lee said.

"We sincerely seek the abiding interest and support of the international community to see us through," he said.

The Korean Peninsula was divided into communist North Korea and pro-Western South Korea in 1945. Their war in the early 1950s ended without a peace treaty.

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