The President of the Republic of Korea (ROK), Roh Moo-hyun, said yesterday his country will seek a joint economic community with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as officials from the two sides prepare for the second-ever summit between leaders on the divided peninsula.

Also yesterday, a ROK official announced Roh would travel to Pyongyang for the August 28-30 summit with DPRK leader Kim Jong Il via restored roads across the two countries' heavily armed border. The Koreas held their first summit seven years ago, when then-ROK President Kim Dae-jung flew to the North.

Roh, who has pursued a policy of engagement toward the North, said yesterday that mutual economic dependence between the two sides was the key to guaranteeing peace on the peninsula.

The Republic of Korea will "make efforts to forge an economic community" with the DPRK as it is the most important issue to bring peace to the Korean peninsula," presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-sun quoted Roh as telling his Cabinet.

The two Koreas have yet to set the agenda for the summit, but they worked out some of the summit arrangements at a meeting between officials from both sides in the North's border city of Kaesong.

Roh will travel by the restored western road through the Demilitarized Zone using his own motorcade to and from Pyongyang, ROK Vice-Unification Minister Lee Kwan-se said after meeting with DPRK officials. The ROK initially proposed that Roh travel to Pyongyang via train but the North balked at the idea, citing unspecified internal issues, Lee said.

The two Koreas held a cross-border test run of trains on restored tracks in May, marking the first time trains crossed the border since rail links were cut early in the 1950-53 Korean War. However, the influential DPRK military has been wary of the restored tracks due to security concerns and the test-run only occurred after repeated delays.

The two sides did not yet discuss the specific agenda of the summit and plan to meet again tomorrow in Kaesong for further consultations, said Lee. Next week, Lee said the ROK will also send a 30-member advance team to Pyongyang by land for preparations ahead of the summit.

The two Koreas remain technically at war since the Korean War ended in a cease-fire that has never been replaced with a peace treaty.

They have made strides toward reconciliation since the 2000 summit but progress has been halting because of the international dispute over the DPRK's nuclear weapons programs that climaxed with the North's first-ever nuclear test detonation in October.

However, regional tensions have calmed after the US reversed its hard-line stance on Pyongyang, prompting the North to shut down its sole operating reactor last month in exchange for energy aid.

(China Daily via agencies August 15, 2007)