Roh, Bush to discuss goals of inter-Korean summit, six-party talks: White House

Washington, August 30 (Yonhap) -- The United States hopes to discuss the goals of the upcoming inter-Korean summit and how it will advance the six-nation North Korean denuclearization process when the presidents of the two countries meet next week, the White House said Thursday.

Dennis Wilder, senior director for East Asia at the National Security Council, said South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush will meet Friday afternoon in Sydney, this year"s venue of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting.

APEC is a gathering of the leaders of 21 nations that account for half of the world"s trade.

Key summit topics would be the six-party talks, the inter-Korean summit, economic ties, and particularly the push to get legislative ratification for the bilateral free trade agreement signed in June, Wilder said.

Roh travels to North Korea on Oct. 2-4 for the second summit with Pyongyang"s top leader, Kim Jong-il. The first such meeting was in June 2000, for which then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung received the Nobel Peace Prize.

The summit is expected to follow a critical session of the six-party talks, a forum aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan are members of the talks.

Under a Feb. 13 agreement, Pyongyang is required in phases to disable and dismantle its nuclear weapons programs. The North came through for the first phase by shutting down its key atomic facilities in Yongbyon.

"I think the key question about the inter-Korean summit, from our point of view, is, how can it be used to advance the denuclerization process in North Korea?" Wilder said at the pre-APEC briefing.

There are a lot of "moving pieces" on North Korea, with different workings groups operating, various attempts to offer incentives the North Koreans, and performance-based assistance to Pyongyang, Wilder said.

"What we want to ensure is that whatever is decided at the inter-Korean summit is part of that mosaic that builds on what has been done and is positive incentives to the North Koreans to continue down the road that all people in East Asia want them to continue to go on," he said.

"So I think it"s going to be very important to hear from President Roh exactly what he hopes to accomplish in that summit and how it will advance the six-party talks."

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