hankyoreh

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said Thursday that his government will not make any effort for an inter-Korean summit until the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear weapons program are successfully concluded.

"An inter-Korean summit will be difficult for the time being," Roh said during his New Year's news conference.

"Only after the conclusion of the six-party talks would inter-Korean issues be fully tackled," the president said, asking the media to abstain from speculating about a summit until any visible signs surface.

The president expressed deep regret over the opposition parties' demand he refrain from pushing for an inter-Korean summit ahead of December's presidential polls.

Roh said that he does not exactly know whether North Korea will conduct a second nuclear bomb test or not.

"North Korea's nuclear weapon test is a very sensitive issue. I will refrain from any direct mentioning on the issue. But we're fully prepared for any unexpected situation," he said.

Asked about the ongoing free trade agreement talks between Seoul and Washington, the president said that he will do his best to conclude the FTA talks with the U.S. by the March deadline, but made clear that his government will not suffer one-sided losses in the negotiations.

Regarding the presidential elections, Roh said it is too early to predict the eventual winner. "In the 1997 elections, the front-running candidate failed despite his overwhelming lead in the early stage of the race. In the last election, too, I won the election though I started from the bottom in terms of popularity ratings," said the president.

"We have to respect the interests of the people to win the elections. We should not give up hope for the ruling Uri Party.

The election landscape could change anytime."

Turning to pending diplomatic issues with Japan, Roh urged Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to refrain from visiting the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japanese war criminals.

"Former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to Yasukuni has aggravated diplomatic relations between Seoul and Tokyo. His shrine visit has a lot of serious meaning for the Korean people," said the president. "Abe has yet to make a shrine visit. I sincerely ask him to abstain from visiting Yasukuni," he said, indicating his Japanese trip would be possible only after Abe disavows shrine visits.

Roh then stressed that the issue of Japanese abductees in North Korea should not be discussed at the six-party talks.

"We well understand the sentiment of the Japanese people regarding the abduction issue. But the issue should not take precedence at the six-party talks."

Confirming his proposal during his meeting with Abe last November in Vietnam to give the sea between Korea and Japan a neutral name, like the Sea of Peace, Roh stressed that there should be any "small efforts" made for peace between Korea and Japan.

"I made the Sea of Peace proposal after long consideration. I asked the Japanese side to give more thoughts to my proposal from a bigger perspective."


Seoul, Jan. 25 (Yonhap News)