hankyoreh

South and North Korea on Thursday started a four-day joint celebration of the seventh anniversary of the historic inter-Korean summit, pool reports said.

A 284-member South Korean delegation, led by Paik Nak-chung, a professor emeritus at Seoul National University, arrived in Pyongyang, the venue of the anniversary event, on a direct charter flight over the West Sea. The delegation included religious and civic group leaders, artists, athletes and politicians.

After disembarking from the plane, Paik read a statement stressing that the commemorative event should contribute to bringing about reconciliation and cooperation, peaceful coexistence and independent unification, a pool report said. Paik also expressed hope that a long-standing banking issue over the North's funds at a Macau bank will be soon resolved as reported.

In response, An Kyong-ho, Paik's North Korean counterpart, said, "Something will likely happen this week, I was told. I think it's a matter of time because they are talking about technical problems."

Organized by an inter-Korean civic committee working for the implementation of the joint declaration made at the 2000 summit, the commemorative event was attended by some 300 delegates from each side, as well as 150 delegates from abroad, the report said.

The participants attended an opening ceremony at the South Gate of Mount Taesong in Pyongyang, and will take a tour of the North's capital and watch an art performance later in the day.

However, the South Korean government did not send any of its officials because the North did not reply to the Seoul's request that government officials be invited. Some perceive the action as an indirect way by the North of expressing anger at the South's withholding of rice aid until the North takes steps toward nuclear dismantlement.

"It is a disappointment that South and North Korean authorities are not participating in the event all together. But the private sector will play the role of expanding inter-Korean exchange and cooperation," a South Korean organizing committee official said, asking to remain anonymous.

The two Koreas have alternated hosting the joint anniversary celebration of the inter-Korean summit, but this year's event, organized by North Korea, excluded South Korean government officials after the latest inter-Korean ministerial talks ended without tangible results earlier this month.

Last year, the joint celebration was held in the South Korean city of Gwangju, about 330 kilometers southwest of Seoul. Small groups of officials from the two sides have participated in the event since 2005.

During the high-level talks, North Korea lodged a strong protest over the South's withholding of promised rice aid until the North shuts down its main nuclear reactor under a February nuclear deal.

South Korea made the rice aid contingent on the North's implementation of the February agreement that calls for the dismantlement of the North's nuclear arms program. But the denuclearization process has stalled over a delay in the transfer of North Korean funds frozen in a Macau bank. The North failed to meet the April 14 deadline to start it nuclear dismantlement program because of that dispute.

The two sides held the first-ever inter-Korean summit in June 2000,opening the gates to rapprochement and reconciliation between the two Koreas. But North and South Korea are still technically in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

SEOUL, June 14 (Yonhap News)