All systems are `go' for inter-Korean summit<\/p>\n
By Kate Webb<\/p>\n
SEOUL (AFP): All systems appear set to go for this month's
\nfirst inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang despite a warning from the
\nStalinist North that it could founder if the nuclear issue is
\nraised.<\/p>\n
A weekend meeting on protocol issues decided the South's
\ndissident-turned-President Kim Young-sam, 66, whose mother was
\nkilled by a North Korean infiltrator in 1960, will cross the
\nheavily-fortified Demilitarized Zone July 25.<\/p>\n
He will travel by road to the summit in Pyongyang with his
\naging North Korean counterpart Kim Il-sung, 82, in a car provided
\nby the North, accompanied by 100 officials and an 80-member-
\nstrong press corps.<\/p>\n
Saturday's protocol meeting at the truce village of Panmunjom
\nalso bulldozed through previously insurmountable barriers --
\nincluding non-recognition by the North of the South as a separate
\nstate and the fact that they are still technically at war. The
\nissues were simply sidestepped.<\/p>\n
The 14-point protocol signed at the end of Saturday's meeting
\nrejected the use of national symbols -- flags or anthems during
\nthe summit and avoided the use of the word \"president.\"<\/p>\n
A 25-member Southern advance party will head for Pyongyang
\nthree days before the summit, during which the North will provide
\na written guarantee of the personal safety of the Southern
\ndelegates.<\/p>\n
But while the procedural obstacles were speedily brushed away,
\nthe nuclear issue still hung heavy over the summit and the hopes
\nit holds out for breaking through the world's last Cold War
\nbarrier.<\/p>\n
While the North-South protocol officers were all smiles
\nSaturday, North Korea's mouthpiece the Korean Central News Agency
\n(KCNA) was churning out warnings to the South not to raise the
\nquestion of access to the North's nuclear program.<\/p>\n
\"This (bringing up the nuclear question) is an act of
\nbeclouding the atmosphere,\" KCNA said, cautioning that mention of
\nPyongyang's nuclear ambitions at the summit would be
\n\"provocative.\"<\/p>\n
Previous deal<\/p>\n
The allusion was apparently to a clause in a four-point accord
\nsigned by two sides last week in which they pledged to try to
\nmaintain an atmosphere that would not disrupt the summit, which
\nfollows a North Korea-U.S. meeting on the issue in Geneva July 8.<\/p>\n
But Seoul has remained adamant that the nuclear issue would be
\nat the forefront of the summit agenda.<\/p>\n
Both meetings, and a temporary freeze of North Korea's nuclear
\nprogram, were brokered by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter last
\nmonth.<\/p>\n
\"The consistent position of our government,\" said trade
\nminister Kim Chul-su Friday. \"Is that nothing can happen (in the
\nfield of increased inter-Korean trade) before the nuclear issue
\nhas been satisfactorily resolved?\"<\/p>\n
Trade and investment, along with pledges that the capitalist
\nSouth has no intention of trying to \"absorb\" the ailing economy
\nin the North, form the basis of the package Kim Young-sam's aides
\nhave said he will take to Pyongyang.<\/p>\n
But, they say, it will be contingent on Kim Il-sung pledging
\nan end to the 18-month standoff with the United Nations over the
\nNorth's suspect nuclear program, which many North Korean analysts
\nhere have seen as a lethal bargaining chip to gain diplomatic
\nrecognition.<\/p>\n
The trade minister was speaking of direct cross border trade,
\njoint ventures and investment by the capitalist South in the
\nStalinist North which has seen its GNP plummet since the collapse
\nof the former Soviet Union.<\/p>\n
Southern businessmen have been chaffing at the linkage,
\ncontending that if they are not allowed to move fast the plums
\nfrom the North's new economic zones open to foreigners will be
\npicked by China and Japan.<\/p>",
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