DATE=5/18/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=KOREAS SUMMIT (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-262505
BYLINE=HYUN SUNG KHANG
DATELINE=SEOUL
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Officials in Seoul say the two Koreas have
fully agreed on the agenda and arrangements for their
landmark June summit in Pyongyang. As Hyun-Sung Khang
reports from Seoul, the announcement follows a
compromise on the last major disagreement: the size of
the media delegation, which will accompany the South
Korean president to North Korea.
TEXT: South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Park
Jae-Kye says both counties have agreed on all the
guidelines for the summit. The agreement - signed in
the border village of Panmunjom (Thursday)- came after
the two Koreas resolved the issue of the size of the
media delegation.
They agreed that 50 journalists will travel to
Pyongyang with the South Korean president next month.
Seoul had proposed sending 80 journalists, but North
Korea had been pressing for half that number with no
foreign media reporters.
The South Korean news agency, Yonhap, quoting the
chief South Korean negotiator, Yang Young-Sik, says
Pyongyang has agreed South Korean journalists will be
allowed to bring live broadcasting and satellite
communications equipment into North Korea. It says
North Korea has also guaranteed that the South Korean
journalists will be allowed to gather
their own material, rather than having it provided by
North Korea.
The June summit between South Korean President Kim
Dae-Jung and the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il will
be the first ever between the countries since the
division of the peninsula in 1945. North and South
Korea are still technically at war since their civil
conflict of 1950-1953 ended without a peace treaty.
/// OPT /// It is expected that the two men will meet
several times during the summit and that neither
country will use their nationals flags or songs. One
South Korean paper, quoting an unidentified government
official, said the reduced protocol was in line with
the precedent set by the two Germanys, when they
started to improve relations during the Cold War. ///
END OPT ///
Unification Ministry spokesman Park Jae-Kye says an
advance team of South Korean officials will visit
Pyongyang at the end of May to prepare for the summit.
/// OPT /// The team -- likely to consist of some 30
specialists in communications, media and security --
will visit the location of the leader's meeting and
talk with their North Korean counterparts. /// END OPT
///
The North Korean negotiator, Choi Sung-Il says both
sides have agreed to a broadly-worded agenda calling
for self-reliance, peace and national unity. This
will give North Korea an opportunity to raise the
issue of U-S troops in the South and Seoul's national
security law against contacts with communists. South
Korea will be pressing the issues of reunification of
families separated by the division of the peninsula,
economic cooperation, the end of Cold War structures
and the ways to have on-going dialogue between the two
governments.
NEB/HK/HSK/JO/PLM
18-May-2000 04:34 AM EDT (18-May-2000 0834 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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