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| S-Korea President Roh Moo-hyun enters North |
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South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun has
walked over the heavily fortified border into
North Korea en route to a summit in
Pyongyang.
His meeting with North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il is only the second such meeting since
the Korean war.
President Roh said a "peace settlement
together with economic development" would be
his aim.
The 1950-53 war between the two sides has
never formally ended, but Seoul has promoted
hopes for a permanent truce.
It says this summit, scheduled to last three
days, may pave the way for that historic
step.
President Roh left the South Korean capital,
Seoul, in a motorcade along with business
leaders, bureaucrats, poets and clerics.
The convoy stopped at the demilitarized zone
to allow the president and his wife, to cross
into the north on foot.
They stepped across a yellow plastic tape,
printed with the words "peace" and
"prosperity".
"I do hope after my crossing that more people
will follow suit," said President Roh at the
border.
"This line will gradually be erased and the
wall will fall."
The motorcade will now continue to Pyongyang
The two states' only other summit was held in
Pyongyang in 2000.
At the time, Kim Jong-il promised to make the
return journey to Seoul, but that has never
happened.
The first summit led to the former South
Korean President Kim Dae-jung winning the
Nobel Peace Prize for his "sunshine policy"
of rapprochement with the North.
Since then, rail and road links have been
reconnected and families divided between the
two countries have been granted reunions, if
only briefly.
But critics say the South's attempts at
friendship and large donations of aid have
failed to break down the impoverished North's
isolationism or improve its human rights
record.
Some observers doubt whether Kim Jong-il has
any appetite for reconciliation, says the
BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul.
They believe he prefers to keep his military
threat to coax further economic aid and other
concessions from the nervous South, our
correspondent says.
BBC
Tags : S-Korea President Roh Moo-hyun enters North |
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