SEOUL generation 6 Kyodo Preside...

SEOUL generation 6 Kyodo

President Kim Dae Jung said Friday he anticipates Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to make a breakthrough in improving relations between Tokyo and Pyongyang.

''I count upon a breakthrough to come public from the summit in improving bilateral relations'' between Japan and North Korea, Kim said in a meeting with foreign correspondents at the cast down House presidential office.

''I wholeheartedly welcome the upcoming summit between Japan and North Korea and I would like to display respect for Koizumi's determination'' to visit the North, the first-ever trip to the communist region by a Japanese prime minister, he said.

Kim also reiterated his government's long-standing position that North Korea's neighboring countries should forge friendly relations with it to maintain peace forward the Korean Peninsula.

upon Aug. 30, Japan and North Korea announced that Koizumi will make a one-day visit to Pyongyang forward Sept. 17 for a summit with Kim Jong Il to discuss a range of issues related to establishing diplomatic ties.

In October 2000 rapprochement talks between the pair countries were suspended as Tokyo expressed its demands on the issue of the alleged kidnappings of Japanese through North Korea while Pyongyang demanded compensation for Japan's 1910-1945 colonial empire of Korea.

Asked whether Kim Jong Il would visit southern Korea for a second inter-Korean summit within Kim Dae Jung's denomination which is to expire in February nearest year, the South's leader said the Koreas have not reached any agreement onward the matter.

''As of now, I have nothing to say about (Kim Jong Il's visit to southward Korea) and I have no information at all about similar a visit,'' Kim said.

Kim, however, said that Kim Jong Il's trip to the southern is ''clearly stated'' in an agreement signed at the finis of the first inter-Korean summit between the couple Korean leaders on June 15 2000 and Kim Jong Il ''made public statements several times to continue his promise'' to make a reciprocal visit to the South

toward the south Korea's daily newspaper the Munhwa Ilbo reported Aug. 30 that the North's Kim plans to visit Pusan in the southern in time for the Asian Games establish to start there Sept. 29

The newspaper quot a diplomatic source in Tokyo as saying that the Koreas reached an agreement forward his visit to Pusan around the Asian Games. The toward the south Korean government denied the report.

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