hankyoreh

former first lady and widow of late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung

Lee Hee-ho, the 88-year-old president of the Kim Dae-jung Peace Center and widow of the former South Korean president, has stated that if possible, she would like to travel to Pyongyang to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

During a special interview Friday at her home in the Donggyo neighborhood of Seoul’s Mapo District, held to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the June 15 Joint Declaration, Lee said, “I wish to say that it would be good if Chairman Kim Jong-il observed the terms of the agreement” in regards to the June 15 Joint Declaration of 2000.

According to Park Jin-won, inter-Korean cooperation advisor of the Kim Dae-jung Peace Center, North Korea’s Korea-Asia Pacific Peace Committee sent a fax to the center on April 10.

Park said the fax stated, “Let us hold a North-South joint academic forum in Pyongyang in mid-June in order to meaningfully commemorate the tenth anniversary of the June 15 Joint Declaration.”

“It would be beneficial if Kim Dae-jung Peace Center President Lee Hee-ho and other officials involved in the June 15 meeting could attend the forum,” Park reported the message as saying.

“Holding a North Korea-South Korea joint academic forum in mid-June would be realistically difficult,“ due to the deterioration in inter-Korean relations since the Cheonan’s sinking, Park said. ”We sent a fax to North Korea on Friday suggesting that we hold the forum around the time of the first anniversary of former President Kim Dae-jung’s death (Aug. 18), or before the end of the year at the latest.“

Lee said, “Since the current administration came into office, inter-Korean relations have fallen apart and returned to the Cold War era.”

“My husband may have gone on to the next world, but I know that he would be profoundly concerned,” she added.

Lee said, “If my husband were alive, he probably would have advised us to try to solve problems through dialogue, even if that means a holding a summit, and would advise against entering a war-like situation, and that we should observe the terms of the June 15 Joint Declaration.”

She added, “I would like to advise President Lee Myung-bak to re-read the June 15 Joint Declaration.”

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]