Second Inter-Korean Summit Renamed “2007 Summit”

The summit between Pyongyang and Seoul slated for October 2-4 in the capital city of the communist North will be called the “2007 Inter-Korean Summit” instead of the “Second Inter-Korean Summit,” the South Korean government decided Wednesday.

“The organizing committee for the inter-Korean summit came up with the decision in its meeting on Saturday,” said a source from Cheong Wa Dae at a briefing.

“Summit talks are not usually numbered in consecutive order,” he explained. “The summit has been called ‘the second inter-Korean summit’ so that it may become a regular event, but ‘2007 inter-Korean summit’ is a more appropriate term in terms of diplomatic practice.”

The new naming, however, may be the government’s attempt at differentiating itself from former president Kim Dae-jung, the first-ever South Korean president to meet the head of North Korea in 2000.

The same source from Cheong Wa Dae said, “Some want to make this summit a second round of the first one, while others reiterate that the 2000 summit and this summit are two different things,” giving a description of the atmosphere within the administration.

Meanwhile, President Roh Moo-hyun is likely to see “Arirang,” a mass propaganda gymnastics performance of North Korea, on the first day of his visit to Pyongyang.

jin0619@donga.com