N.Korea Withdraws Summit Extension Offer

By KWANG-TAE KIM

SEOUL, South Korea – The two Koreas decided Wednesday to stick to their original schedule and not extend their first summit in seven years after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il said there had been "enough dialogue" between the sides.

"As we had enough dialogue, we don’t need to extend" the summit, Kim said after the end of a second session of talks Wednesday with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, according to South Korean pool reports. The leaders shook hands at the end of their meetings, both appearing cheerful in video relayed from Pyongyang.

Earlier, Kim had proposed the meeting be extended so that Roh could enjoy a casual lunch Thursday with the North Korean leader. However, Roh did not immediately agree and said he would consult with advisers.

It was not clear whether Roh rejected the offer first or if Kim took it back of his own accord.

The two Koreas were to issue a joint statement Thursday morning, according to pool reports.

Roh said he had sought common ground with Kim as they opened formal talks in Pyongyang for only the second-ever summit between the divided Koreas.

"We didn’t reach consensus on everything. There were parts on which our perceptions coincided, and there were other parts" on which the perceptions didn’t coincide, Roh said at a luncheon with the South Korean delegation during a pause in his talks with Kim.

"However, what I clearly confirmed is that (Kim) has a firm will about peace and there was consensus that there should be an agreement this time that presents a future direction about peace," Roh said.

Roh acknowledged that the North, one of the world’s most isolated nations, was taking a cautious approach in opening up to its capitalist neighbor.

"North Korea still has some skepticism about the South, and doesn’t trust it enough," Roh told the luncheon. "We have to make more efforts to further tear down this wall of distrust."

He also said the North expressed regret that the international standoff over its nuclear weapons programs had prevented greater economic cooperation with the South.

As the summit started Wednesday, Roh and Kim briefly mentioned recent floods in the North that left about 600 people dead or missing and tens of thousands homeless and prompted North Korea to delay the summit from its original August date.

Kim appeared animated and smiled repeatedly Wednesday as he greeted Roh – a contrast from his dour demeanor Tuesday, when the two first met briefly at an outdoor welcoming ceremony after the South Korean president arrived in Pyongyang.

The summit comes amid a hiatus in separate international talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, as the six countries involved consider a draft agreement requiring Pyongyang to disable its weapons facilities by the end of the year. It shut down its sole operating reactor in July.

The main U.S. negotiator at those talks, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, said the U.S. had approved the draft and that other countries at the arms talks – China, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas – were expected to approve it before it was made public in the next few days.

Once the agreement is signed, Hill said the reactor’s disabling could be started "in a matter of weeks" – rendering it unable to be easily restarted to make more plutonium for bombs. Next year, the U.S. wants the North to abandon its fissile material – paving the way for peace talks to finally formally end the Korean War.

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Associated Press writers Jae-soon Chang, Burt Herman and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, and Edith M. Lederer in New York contributed to this report.