hankyoreh

Germany

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said Monday he will invite North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to the second nuclear summit in Seoul next year if North Korea firmly agrees with the international community to give up its nuclear weapons program.

“If that happens, it will be an opportunity for North Korea’s bright future,” President Lee said in a joint news conference after a summit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. “The precondition is not to present a specific action plan because it will have to be materialized through six-party talks and other discussions.”

South Korea is supposed to host the second Nuclear Security Summit at which some 50 world leaders will gather to discuss a nuclear-free world in Seoul in April 2012.

Lee’s proposal was a step forward from what he said in April 2010 at the first Nuclear Security Summit initiated by US President Barack Obama in Washington. It was interpreted as a reply to Kim Jong-il’s suggestion via former US President Jimmy Carter late April that he was prepared to talk with Lee on any issue, at any time.

However, Lee’s proposal does not appear sincere because it was attached by a precondition of clear commitment to denuclearization. Moreover there seems no chance that Kim, who has never been at the multilateral summits, accept the invitation to a summit for nuclear non-proliferation.

It seems unlikely that the two Koreas will take up South Korea’s proposal this week and hold a joint academic forum on volcanic activity at North Korea’s Mount Baekdu.

According to Seoul’s Unification Ministry, the North said it had no specific response when asked late Monday if there were any messages concerning the proposed talks on potential danger from the volcanic mountain. The talks would have been held in Seoul or Pyungyang from May 11th to the 13th.

Nearly a month ago, volcano experts from the two sides agreed to a meeting in early May and an on-site study of Mount Baekdu in mid-June.

Pyongyang, meanwhile, has also not responded to suggestions that the two Koreas discuss promoting the use of the name “East Sea” or the issue of North Korean defectors, as initially requested.

(Arirang News)

Lee Hoi-chang, chairman of the minor conservative Liberty Forward Party (LFP), offered to step down from his post Monday to revive his party’s image ahead of next year’s major elections.

Lee, 76, a former Supreme Court justice who narrowly lost presidential elections twice on the ruling party ticket, bolted from the Grand National Party after the last election loss and founded the LFP in 2008, which now holds 16 seats in the 299-member parliament.

His offer to resign comes at a time when rival parties are facing leadership changes to prepare for next year‘s general and presidential elections, following April by-elections in which the ruling Grand National Party was defeated by the main opposition Democratic Party.

As a way to break free from the LFP’s exclusive, old image, Lee suggested changing the party’s top-to-bottom nomination process and forming an emergency leadership led by Byun Ung-jun, a member of the LFP’s Supreme Council.

(Yonhap News)