Bush to discuss denuclearisation issue in Seoul on Aug 5-6

SEOUL, July 2 (Itar-Tass) - South Korea and the United States have
fixed a date for a visit of US President George W. Bush, the Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday.

The visit will be made from August 5 to 6 ahead of the opening of the
Beijing Olympics. Bush is to be present at the opening ceremony of the
Games among guests of honour. Yet another meeting between the leaders of
the two allied countries will be held in July on the sidelines of the G-8
summit on the Japanese Island of Hokkaido.

The US president declined to visit Seoul in July, for mass activities
of trade unions and non-governmental organisations have been going on for
a third month now in protest at the resumption of the import of American
beef. People here do not believe that the new accords between the US and
South Korea will guarantee the import of exclusively safe meat into this
country following outbreaks of mad-cow diseases across the ocean.

Besides, the presidents of South Korea and the US intend to discuss
ways to make Pyongyang fully abandon its nuclear ambitions and give
economic aid to it in exchange. It is precisely these problems that
participants in the six-sided talks on the denuclearisation of the Korean
Peninsula examine.

It is also expected that ways to strengthen bilateral alliance,
Seoul's participation in international initiatives aimed at preventing
proliferation of banned armaments and military technologies, as well as
the dispatch of South Korean troops to Afghanistan will be discussed
during the two leaders' meeting.