S. Korea's Lee willing to meet Kim

SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korean President-elect Lee Myung-bak said on Monday he is willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to help in the denuclearization process as the reclusive Communist nation dismantles its nuclear program.

"Leaders of the two Koreas can meet anytime if it would be helpful to the denuclearization of North Korea," Lee said, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency. "But the next summit has to take place in Seoul."

Lee is to take office on February 25.

South Korean presidents have met twice before with Kim -- first in 2000, when President Kim Dae-jung and Kim huddled in Pyongyang; and again this past October, when outgoing President Roh Moo-hyun held a second summit in the North Korean capital.

Under a deal struck in February 2007, North Korea began to disable its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon -- which produced weapons-grade plutonium for the bomb it tested in 2006 -- in exchange for economic and energy assistance.

But it has yet to document its past and present nuclear secrets, another condition of the deal, according to Washington, missing a December 31 deadline.

North Korea said on Friday that it had informed the United States in November about its nuclear program, well in advance of the New Year's Eve deadline.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack denied the North Koreans had made the expected "declaration" of their nuclear secrets and downplayed their public statements.

The final goal of attaining denuclearization of North Korea is set for the end of 2008. E-mail to a friend

All About South Korea • Lee Myung-bak • Kim Jong-Ill • North Korea