South Korea sees Jiang's visit to North as boost to peace
South Korea sees Jiang's visit to North as boost to peace
SEOUL (AFP): Seoul hopes China's President Jiang Zemin will press North Korea to end a freeze on contacts with the rival South when he visits Pyongyang next week, officials said on Tuesday.
The government hopes in particular that Jiang will convince the North's secretive leader Kim Jong-Il to hold a promised second summit with South Korea's President Kim Dae-Jung.
The Chinese leader brought forward his visit to Pyongyang by several weeks to September 3-5, in what is seen as a sign of the growing urgency of attempts to stop the North sinking back into isolation, diplomats said.
A visit to Seoul by US President George W. Bush in October could also help break the deadlock in the Korean peace process launched by a summit between the two Kims last year.
Amid new strains between Washington and Pyongyang, there have been no official North-South contacts since March and Kim Jong-Il has refused appeals from his South Korean counterpart to set a date for a promised return visit.
"We expect China will advise the North to resume the inter- Korean talks, including Kim Jong-Il's return visit to Seoul," South Korean foreign ministry spokesman Kim Eui-Taek told AFP. "As the Chinese side knows our desire for peace on the Korean peninsula very well, it will fully reflect our position to the North," he added.
Seoul officials still consider a second inter-Korean summit as the key to getting efforts to establishing a permanent peace moving again. The North and South never formally ended the 1950- 53 Korean War.
Chinese and North Korean official media have announced that Jiang will make his "goodwill visit" to the North at the invitation of Kim Jong-Il. Kim Jong-Il carried out secretive visits to China in May 2000 and in January this year.
China is a traditional friend of North Korea, having fought with its communist ally in the Korean War. But it has expanded ties with South Korea since the two established diplomatic ties in 1992.
"China's consistent foreign policy on the Korean peninsula is that peace and stability in the region is crucial and improving inter-Korean ties is necessary," senior government unification policy official Rhee Bong-Jo said.
Kim Dae-Jung's "Sunshine Policy" of engagement with the North, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, hit a major snag after Bush ordered a stricter line on contacts with the North, than his predecessor Bill Clinton.
Citing what it calls "hostile" US policy, the North has frozen all contacts, including talks on Kim Jong-Il's return visit.