South Korea's president has ruled out any reward to North
Korea in return for a summit with North Korean leader Kim
Jong Il, just days after the South's leader raised the
possibility of a summit this year.
"The leaders of South and North Korea should meet on the
premise that there will be no price for a summit," President
Lee Myung-bak said in a Cabinet meeting, according to his
office.
Lee, who has taken a tougher approach toward Pyongyang than
his predecessors since taking office in 2008, said he would
not compromise his principle regarding the summit.
Lee told the BBC last week from Davos, Switzerland, that a
meeting with the North's Kim "could probably" take place
within the year.
South Korea allegedly paid hundreds of millions of dollars to
North Korea in 2000 to help arrange the summit between
then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and the North's Kim
in that year.
The two Koreas also held a second summit in 2007.
Lee's latest comments came amid conflicting signals from
North Korea toward its rival South Korea.
Last week, North Korea lobbed dozens of shells toward its
disputed western sea border with South Korea, prompting South
Korea to respond with a barrage of warning shots.
Pyongyang called it a military exercise, and South Korean
officials reported no casualties or damage.
Two no-sail zones ordered by North Korea early last week just
before the fracas remain in place, and on the Yonhap news
agency has in Seoul said Pyongyang issued notices for five
new no-sail zones: four off the west coast and one off the
east.
The poorly marked sea border is a frequent source of tension
between the Koreas. Their navies fought a skirmish in
November that left one North Korean sailor dead and three
others wounded, and engaged in bloodier battles in the area
in 1999 and 2002.
Despite the flare-up in tensions, officials from the two
Koreas met at the North Korean border town of Kaesong to
discuss their joint factory park. Talks ended without any
significant progress.
The sides agreed instead to discuss at separate military
talks South Korea's perennial request that border crossings
be eased for its workers, the Unification Ministry said in a
statement.
They also put off addressing the North's demand for wage
hikes for its workers until the next round of working-level
talks on the factory park, the statement said.
Since 2004, Kaesong has combined South Korean capital and
know-how with cheap North Korean labour, and it has been a
key symbol of cooperation between the wartime rivals.
Tensions last year between the Koreas, which technically
remain in a state of war because the two have not signed a
peace treaty, put the project in jeopardy.
