Posted on 07/01/2004 5:32:37 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
S. Korean Foreign Minister Invites Kim Jong-il to APEC Summit
JAKARTA -- South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon met with North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun on Thursday and invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and other North Korean delegates to the summit for ministerial talks of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), which is scheduled to be held in Busan, South Korea, in November 2005.
Ban is on a trip to Jakarta to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum. It is the first time for the South Korean government to officially invite the North Korean leader to the APEC.
Ban suggested that day that the North and the South should establish a standing diplomatic channel for close discussions of inter-Korean relations including the six party talks on the North Korean nuclear weapons program. In order for increased economic aid to the North, Ban also asked his North Korean counterpart to make proactive efforts to resolve its nuclear problem based on the progress made during the third round of six party talks on the North’s nuclear crisis, which was held in Beijing last month. The inter-Korean foreign minister talks is the first in four years since the meeting of then South Korean Foreign Minister Lee Jeong-bin and North Korean Foreign Minister Baek Nam-sun in 2000.
Following the meeting with the South Korean foreign minister, Baek met with Japanese Foreign Minister Kawaguchi Yoriko to discuss ways of settling the Japanese abductees issue. Ban also met with the Japanese foreign minister and the Chinese foreign minister Thursday afternoon. North and South Korea will have a separate meeting with U.S State Secretary Colin Powell on Friday.
Ping!
He still has not kept his end of the bargain to eventually visit the South, for nearly four years now, despite Kim Dae Jung visiting the North on the Bribe Junket. Chicken. He knows that he may loose his power or his life by bolding stepping out of his kingdom into any country except China or Russia.
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