Korea-U.S. Summit to be Held in June

Korea and the U.S. agreed to hold a summit in June; President Roh will visit President George W. Bush.

It was reported that the visiting Korean NSC deputy secretary general to the U.S., Lee Jong-seok, met and consulted with White House deputy national security advisor Jack Crouch to hold a Korea-U.S. summit and agreed to the above.

At a gathering of special correspondents to the U.S., Lee hinted that the summit will be held in June, saying, “Not in the autumn. May is too soon.”

A government authority also explained yesterday, “There will be an announcement on the summit venue and time as soon as a working-level consultation between the two countries is over. The summit agenda will place the heaviest weight on the North Korea nuclear issue and the reinforcement of the Korea-U.S. alliance.”

Since this summit will be held one year after the aborted six-party talks due to the absence of North Korea, it is expected that the two nations will consult on an ensuing strategy of measures to take on Pyongyang, and it is likely that it will be a watershed in resolving the crisis.

It was reported that President Bush’s ranch in his hometown of Crawford, Texas, or Camp David near Washington are being reviewed as possible summit venues. The two presidents held summits in Washington and Bangkok in May and October, 2003, and in Santiago, Chile in November, 2004; so it will be their fourth summit.

Seung-Ryun Kim srkim@donga.com jnghn@donga.com