President Roh Receives North Korean Ministerial-level Delegates

At the first general conference of the 15th round of inter-Korean ministerial meetings held at the Sheraton Walker Hill Hotel in Gwangjang-dong, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul on June 22, South Korea suggested for the two Koreas to hold a general-level military meeting in July and to make this a regular occurrence. Furthermore, South Korea has requested the resumption of the second round of inter-Korean defense ministerial meeting, which had been suspended since September 2000.

Spokesman of the ministerial meeting Kim Cheon-sik (director of the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Bureau under the Unification Ministry) noted the above matter, briefing the result of the meeting to the press.

Kim said, “The general-level military meeting should be held in order to conclude the issue of preventing accidental armed conflicts on the West Sea, suspending propaganda activity near the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), and removing the means of propagating, with which the two Koreas agreed on June 4 2004, and to discuss an additional measure to establish peace between the two Koreas.”

The South Korean chief delegate Chung Dong-young (Unification Minister) proposed in his keynote speech that on a humanitarian level, the two Koreas should hold the sixth round of Talks between the South and North Korean Red Cross Societies on Mt. Geumgang in July in order to verify whether or not the abducted and detained in North Korea and prisoners of war are alive and to find their current addresses.

Meanwhile, President Roh will receive the North Korean delegation, including the North Korean Senior Cabinet Councilor Kwon Ho Ung at Cheong Wa Dae on June 23.

At the reception, President Roh is expected to deliver special regards to North Korea’s National Defense Committee Chairman Kim Jong Il, and will repeatedly demand that the North make a strategic decision to resolve its nuclear problem.

However, Cheong Wa Dae stated that Mr. Kwon has not come as a special envoy of Kim.

Jung-Hun Kim taewon_ha@donga.com jnghn@donga.com