[Editorial] Kim Dae Jung's N.K. visit must promote N.E. Asian peace

Representatives from North and South Korea will meet on May 16 at the North's Mount Kumgang to make arrangements for former president Kim Dae Jung's visit to Pyongyang in June. Kim's visit was agreed on at ministerial talks held April 21-24, and on May 5, the North extended an official invitation. There have been a lot of complications so far, with a series of invitations and postponements, but now it looks like it will actually happen.

It is particularly notable that the North's top delegate to the planning meeting at Mount Kumgang will be Ri Jong Hyok, vice chairman of the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee. Given the significance of the role Mr. Ri plays in the North's dealings with the South, the fact that he will be in charge suggests that Pyongyang sees former president Kim's visit as something very significant and that is a matter for the highest level of government there.

Mr. Kim's "semi-governmental" visit comes at a time when inter-Korean relations are at a standstill, and we hope to see the event lead to a breakthrough in the North Korean nuclear issue. Officials at the planning meeting at Mount Kumgang need to work out the details so that Mr. Kim is able to meet with the North's Kim Jong Il and engage in substantial dialogue. The two leaders need to be able to engage in frank discussion about ways to establish lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula and stability in Northeast Asia if they are going to be able to find points of agreement on resolving the various difficult issues that exist.

The planning meeting also needs to finalize the details about Mr. Kim going to Pyongyang by train and the complete opening of the Seoul to Sinuiju rail line. The route is a symbol of intra-Korean reconciliation and an important catalyst for intra-Korean economic cooperation, and as such should be postponed no further.

We hope to see, on the occasion of the former president Kim's visit to Pyongyang, the creation of concrete plans for resolving, from a humanitarian perspective, the issue of South Korean abductees and POWs in North Korea. In addition, the far-right elements that are engaged in backwards and irrational attacks on the former president by suggesting his visit is part of a vast North Korean conspiracy to communize the whole peninsula need to exercise restraint.