Koreas set for diplomatic battle in Cairo next week

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, July 8 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's ambassador to the United Nations will
attend the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit to be held next week in Cairo to
lobby for Seoul's position on inter-Korean affairs to be reflected in the final
document of the meeting, diplomatic sources here said Wednesday.
North Korea is expected to send its No. 2-ranking leader Kim Yong-nam to the
annual summit of 118 states considering themselves not formally aligned with any
major power bloc, heralding yet another round of diplomatic battles between the
two Koreas. The North is a member of the organization, while South Korea has been
participating as a guest.
"Ambassador to the U.N. Park In-kook will attend the summit (to be held on July
15-16)," a source said. "His main mission is to make sure South Korea's position
will be reflected in a balanced way in a statement summing up the results of the
meeting."
In the Ministerial Meeting of NAM's Coordination Bureau held in Havana, Cuba in
May, the two Koreas competed to tip the statement in their own favor.
At that time, the North sought to include references to inter-Korean summit deals
in the statement. Pyongyang is seeking international pressure on South Korea's
conservative government to fully implement the two summit agreements from 2000
and 2007. The deals, signed by the South's former liberal presidents, call for a
package of tension-easing measures and expanded economic cooperation between the
two sides.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, however, wants to implement the existing
inter-Korean summit agreements on a selective and reciprocal basis in tandem with
the North's denuclearization efforts.
South Korea asked NAM member states to mention the need for resuming the six-way
nuclear talks, which Pyongyang has abandoned, insisting references to the
inter-Korean summit deals should otherwise be also deleted.
In the end, all mention of the Korean Peninsula was expunged from the May statement.
"Ambassador Park will try to make sure that South Korea's position is reflected
in the statement to be issued at the end of the upcoming NAM summit," the source
said.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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