Kim Dae-jung delays visit to North
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-06-21 09:46
SEOUL - Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung has cancelled a trip to
Pyongyang planned for next week because of tensions over apparent preparations
by North Korea for a ballistic missile test, an official in Seoul said on
Wednesday.
"It is practically impossible for him to visit in late June
because of the unexpected circumstances," South Korean official Jeong Se-hyun,
who was negotiating the trip, told reporters.
The announcement comes as
Seoul, Washington and Tokyo have said there is evidence North Korea may conduct
a test-launch of a long-range missile, which the three have said would present a
grave danger to regional security.
Kim, who orchestrated an
unprecedented summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000, had hoped to
use the meeting to help restart stalled six-country talks on ending Pyongyang's
nuclear programmes.
Kim, who was president from 1998 to 2003, won the
Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for orchestrating the meeting in Pyongyang.
His visit began a rapid warming of ties between the two Koreas, which
are still technically at war because only a truce was declared at the end of the
1950-53 Korean War.
Kim Jong-il has yet to reciprocate with a visit to
the South.
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