NORTH / SOUTH KOREA: South Korean president second day of summit watching North Korean mass games

Record ID: 497426

  • Title: NORTH / SOUTH KOREA: South Korean president second day of summit watching North Korean mass games
  • Date: 4th October 2007
  • Summary: (W3) SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (OCTOBER 3, 2007) (REUTERS) CHIEF SOUTH KOREAN SIX-PARTY TALKS ENVOY, CHUN YUNG-WOO, WALKING INTO ROOM CHUN STANDING BEHIND PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) CHUN YUNG-WOO, CHIEF SOUTH KOREAN ENVOY TO SIX-PARTY TALKS, SAYING: "Once the relation between South and North Koreas improves, we would have more incentives to facilitate denuclearisation because
  • Embargoed: 19th October 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAC65FF0ZZG8S5MRKBF585YAHH2
  • Story Text: In the absence of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, South Korean Roh Moo-hyun watched the North's arirang Mass Games with the North's nominal number two leader after several hours of summit meetings with Kim Jong-il on Wednesday (October 3).
    Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans cheered Roh as he entered the Arirang mass game stadium with Kim Yong-nam.
    There was speculation that the North's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il would accompany Roh for the mass games, but Kim did not attend.
    The mass games are famous for the extravagant performance of goose-stepping soldiers, legions of teenaged dancing girls and a massive flip-card animation section that promotes Korean unification, but under the North's communist banner.
    Despite South Korea's conservative opposition, Roh attended the event that lionises Kim Jong-il and his father, the late Kim Il-sung, the country's eternal president.
    The spectacle however was tailored for Roh, and cut back on items seen in other shows - such as depictions of the North's soldiers bayoneting those from the South.
    After the mass games, Roh hosted dinner and reaffirmed his commitment toward peace and co-prosperity between two Koreas.
    "Economic cooperation and peace reinforce each other as economic cooperation solidifies peace and the assurance of peace accelerates economic cooperation in return," Roh said.
    Roh had summit meetings with his counterpart Kim Jong-il twice on Wednesday.
    The second ever summit between the two Koreas looked strained earlier on in the day when the South's president snubbed an invitation by Kim Jong-il to stay in Pyongyang another day.
    However Seoul insisted the talks between Roh Moo-hyun and the North's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il had been a success and they would issue a statement by lunchtime on Thursday (October 4).
    "We believe there was sufficient and honest dialogue. The president said the result of the talks was satisfactory," presidential spokesman Chon Ho-seon told reporters in Pyongyang.
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