President's plea to N Korea

2008-08-15 12:02

Seoul - South Korea's president urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear programmes and resume stalled inter-Korean dialogue, saying on Friday he wants to enrich the communist country through economic co-operation.

"I am not going to give up the dream of both Koreas living well together," President Lee Myung-bak said in a speech marking the 63rd anniversary of the Korean peninsula's liberation from Japanese colonial rule.

"Permanent peace must be brought about," Lee said.

But to realise that vision, the North's nuclear weapons programme, "which is the source of distrust and conflict, has to be eliminated completely", he added.

International disarmament talks on North Korea's nuclear programmes reported major progress in June when the North submitted a long-delayed declaration of its bomb programmes and destroyed its nuclear cooling tower.

Still blacklisted

But the US said this week it would not remove the North from its terror blacklist unless the regime agreed to a nuclear verification plan.

Tension between the Koreas has also been running high since a North Korean soldier fatally shot a South Korean tourist who allegedly wandered into a restricted military area at a mountain resort in the North last month.

Pyongyang already cut off official talks in protest at Lee's hard-line policies since assuming office in February.

"I have expectations that Pyongyang will come forward for comprehensive dialogue and economic co-operation because now is the most opportune time for the North to make change," Lee said.

He added his government will push for "substantive" economic co-operation projects with North Korea in tandem with recent progress in international nuclear talks.

During his election campaign, Lee said he would launch massive investment and aid projects in the North to increase its per capita income to US$3 000 within a decade if North Korea abandons its nuclear programme.

The North, however, has escalated rhetoric against the South including threatening to attack and lobbing personal insults at the conservative, pro-American Lee, such as calling him a "traitor".

Friday also marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the South Korean government.

- AP