Agreements Made at Korea-Vietnam Summit Talks

President Roh Moo-hyun, during his state visit to Vietnam, held a two-hour summit meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart, President Tran Duc Luong, on Sunday. The two leaders decided to take their countries’ “Comprehensive Partnership,” an agreement made on August of 2001, to a higher level.

During the meeting, President Roh stated, “In order for the six-party talks over the North’s nuclear issue to be successful, North Korea has to make a decision. For this to happen, they need the confidence to reform and pursue an open-door policy.” He also pleaded to President Luong: “Please be a model of success for changing to an open-door policy towards North Korea.” President Roh also expressed that “the North is bringing the South Korea’s nuclear experiments in the way of continuing with the six-party talks. I wish you could deliver the message: ‘These experiments were performed on a non-nuclear level,’ to North Korean officials.”

In response, president Tran Duc Luong stated, “I’m not sure if North Korea will listen, but we will try.” President Luong once visited North Korea back in 2002 and delivered a message from the South Korean government to the North.

President Roh said, “Our people harbor a sense of debt to the Vietnamese people, and we wish the best for Vietnam,” regarding the history issue between the two nations as Korea participated in the Vietnam War.

During the meeting, both nations agreed to approve the “Hanoi Project,” the development of new areas of the Vietnamese capital by Korean construction companies, a joint-investment project to launch a Vietnamese mobile communication enterprises among the SK Telecom, LG Electronics, and Dongah Elecomm, an exclusive-industrial complex of 300,000 square feet for Korean middle-sized industries, and the joint-development of atomic power generation technology for natural gas and petroleum.

Meanwhile, president Roh visited the Communist Party Headquarters in Vietnam during the same afternoon, asking the Vietnam`s Communist Party chief Nong Duc Manh to visit South Korea some time early next year.

Previously, President Roh paid a visit to the cemetery of Ho Chi Minh, who is respected as the founding father of Vietnam, paying tribute in front of the corpse, which is displayed in a glass window coffin.

Jung-Hun Kim jnghn@donga.com