Leaders of Korea and the U.S. Will Visit the Mt. Dora Station

Cheong Wa Dae and White House announced yesterday that President Kim Dae-Jung and U.S. President George W. Bush will visit the symbolic site of the division of the Korean Peninsula, the Mt. Dora Station of the Kyeong-Ui Railroad in the afternoon of the 20th.

Speeches at Mt. Dora Station and the Summit: the two leaders will make speeches at the Mt. Dora Station to emphasize the security and the peace of the Korean Peninsula and will urge for the active participation of the North in dialogues. President Kim will urge the North to resume the reconstruction of the Kyeong-Ui railroad.

Mr. Bush will arrive in Korea in the evening of the 19th and will have exclusive and expanded summit with President Kim in the morning of the next day to discuss the North`s weapons of mass destruction.

President Kim revealed at a dinner conference with the leaders of our society that "there is no differences in the confirmation of the Korea-U.S. alliance relationship, anti-terrorism, and the resolution of WMD problem between Korean and the U.S. and we have agreed to solve those problems through dialogues. The four principles will be strongly confirmed at the summit."

Remarks of U.S. High Ranking Officials: With regard to the Bush`s visit to the Mt. Dora Station, U.S. national security aide Rice said, "we want to talk with the North but we want to talk about concrete issues but do not want to talk just to talk. The primary concern of the U.S. is to stop what the North is doing now and make the North become no threat to the security of the Korean Peninsula in the region. However, what the North is currently doing is a threat to the international society."

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell remarked at the interview with Financial Times on 14th, "President Bush will deliver strong support to the vision for unification of President Kim Dae-Jung and for the Korea-U.S. alliance during his visit to Korea, but we cannot ignore the real face of the Pyongyang regime."

The spokesperson for the National Security Council revealed that "President Bush will urge for the return visit of the North`s chairperson of Defense Commission Kim Jong-Il at the Korea-U.S. summit." James Kelley also mentioned that "we are supportive to the engagement policy of President Kim Dae-Jung, who is try to improve the Inter-Korean relationship through continuous and comprehensible openness in economy, politics, society and culture. However, the sunshine will not enable to cultivate the wasteland."

Response of North: with regard to the Bush`s visit to Korea, the Pyongyang Broadcasting asserted that "the visit is an action to intensify the tenses and to wage the war in the Korean Peninsula and an anti-unification act to block the solidarity and the reconciliation of the nation. The visit in continuity of the hard-line policy against the North should be stopped immediately."

Ki-Heung Han eligius@donga.com