President Roh to Visit Gaesong Industrial Complex

President Roh Moo-hyun will visit the Gaesong Industrial Complex on the way from Pyongyang to Seoul after holding the 2nd inter-Korean summit in the communist regime’s capital between October 2 and 4, according to government officials.

“President Roh and his entourage will visit the complex on October 4 but the North informed us that North Korean officials will not participate in it,” Cheon Ho-seon, presidential spokesman, said on Friday.

Kim Yong Nam, chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, will greet Roh and the South’s delegates, who will travel on a road running along the Gyeongui Line connecting Seoul with the North’s capital of Pyongyang, at the entrance to the city.

At the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, the North’s leader Kim Jong Il greeted his counterpart Kim Dae-jung at Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang as he arrived in North Korea by plane. Therefore, Kim Jong Il may also greet the South’s delegation in person.

Roh, who is scheduled to meet Chairman Kim Yong Nam in the afternoon of October 2, is still discussing schedules for summit meetings with his counterpart Kim Jong Il.

Some say that Pyongyang is intentionally trying to make the upcoming inter-Korean meeting a discussion between Roh and Chairman Kim, who is the nominal leader of the North, apart from the summit between Roh and Kim Jong Il, whose official post is the chairman of the National Defense Commission of the North.

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