Mori seeks Japan-N. Korea summit

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on July 23 expressed hope that he would hold a summit with North Korean Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-Il.

In a conference at the end of the Group of Eight summit last weekend, the Japanese premier disclosed that he had been advised by South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung to seek a meeting with the North Korean leader, as direct talks with him would be important. Mori said that he would study the best way of developing a channel of talks with Kim.

Meanwhile, During a meeting between U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 21, Putin conveyed Kim Jong-Il`s offer to abandon North Korea¡¯s missile development program in exchange for Western help in launching satellites.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov also disclosed that Pyongyang expressed the desire to launch one or two satellites for peaceful purposes with the help of third countries in return for abandoning its missile development project. He added that the assistance from third countries meant help of either a single or a pool of nations.

The Russian minister said that at the Russian-North Korean summit, there was a discussion on a plan for Moscow` provision of a nuclear power plant in return for Pyongyang`s abandonment of its missile program.

During the meeting between Clinton and Mori, the two leaders shared the view that the inter-Korean dialogue would make progress with the tripartite cooperation among the United States, Japan and South Korea, reinforcing the three-way cooperation in the future.