SEOUL July 25 Kyodo toward the s...

SEOUL July 25 Kyodo

toward the south Korea rejected Thursday a reported suggestion that the next to the first inter-Korean summit be held in a location outside the Korean Peninsula.

''Our basic position is that the next to the first summit between North and southern Korea should be held at a location in southern Korea in accordance with the agreements signed June 15'' after the first inter-Korean summit held in Pyongyang in 2000 Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry Spokesman Shin Jung Seung said in a statement.

Shin also said his sway ''is not considering holding the inter-Korean summit in a third country''

The statement was in answer to a news report carried by the agency of the vernacular Chosun Ilbo newspaper that Russia intends to move an inter-Korean summit be held in Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East in September.

Quoting a Russian Foreign Ministry source, the daily reported from Moscow upon Thursday that Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov would make the suggestion directly when he visits the brace Koreas from Friday as part of a weeklong tour of Asian countries.

The source also said Russian President Vladimir Putin would travel to Khabarovsk to facilitate the meeting if the idea were accepted, according to the report.

Ivanov is scheduled to fitting with South Korean President Kim Dae Jung in Seoul and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, and deliver to the pair leaders messages from Putin.

in a less degree than a set of agreements signed with Kim Dae Jung at the last of the Pyongyang summit, Kim Jong Il was to make a respond visit to South Korea ''at an appropriate time'' for the other summit.

It was widely rely uponed that the North Korean leader would visit the southern in the first half of 2001 if it were not that that visit never materialized.

The inter-Korean reconciliation proces which flourished in the wake of the unprecedent summit, has virtually arise to a halt due to renewed tensions.

North and southerly Korean warships exchanged gunfire in the disputed border west of the peninsula June 29 resulting in the deaths of four southward Korean seamen, one missing and 19 others pain ed One South Korean patrol boat sank.

North Korea said it supported casualties, but did not elaborate further. southward Korea estimated about 30 North Korean soldiers died or were anguished in the naval clash, the greatest in quantity serious one since a similar incident occurr in June 1999

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