Lee heads to China for summit talks

By Byun Duk-kun
SEOUL, Oct. 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak embarked on a
two-day trip to Beijing on Friday for talks with Chinese and Japanese leaders on
ways to boost economic cooperation and bring North Korea back to the negotiating
table.
Lee's visit to the Chinese capital focuses mainly on the three-way dialogue, to
be held Saturday with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister
Yukio Hatoyama. Lee and Wen are also set for a bilateral summit later Saturday.
The trip follows Lee's recent proposal for a "grand bargain" with the North that
calls for the dismantlement of the communist nation's key nuclear facilities in a
single step in exchange for massive rewards, including a security guarantee for
Pyongyang.
The proposal, made during Lee's trip to the United States last month, is designed
to end North Korea's "salami tactic" of dividing the denuclearization process
into a multitude of bargaining chips and demanding incentives for each one.
An official at Seoul's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Japan and China had
already been briefed on the proposal and that they had discussed it, adding
President Lee will personally explain it to the Chinese and Japanese prime
ministers at the upcoming summit.
"Details of the proposal are not something to be discussed between the leaders.
However, the president can explain his ideas ... because there clearly is a
difference between hearing directly from a person and reading from a document,"
the official said Thursday, asking not to be identified.
China and Japan, along with South and North Korea, the United States and Russia
make up the six-nations involved in the talks on ending the North's nuclear
ambitions. Lee and the Japanese prime minister held bilateral talks here earlier
Friday.
The Saturday meeting between the three leaders also comes after Wen's trip to
North Korea earlier this week, during which he met with the country's leader Kim
Jong-il and was told the North's return to the nuclear negotiations depended on
the results of bilateral talks with Washington.
North Korea quit the six-way negotiations in April following U.N. condemnation of
its long-range rocket launch.
"We expect Prime Minister Wen to explain the outcome of his trip to the other two
leaders as he recently visited North Korea, and there will be discussions based
on that," the Cheong Wa Dae official said.
The three leaders were expected to issue a joint statement at the end of their
summit. The Saturday meeting marks the 10-year anniversary of the trilateral
talks that originally began on the sidelines of an annual regional forum hosted
by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The South Korean president is also seeking to win the support of China and Japan
for the G-20 economic summit to be held here in November next year, which could
be put into a separate document on cooperation on economic and environmental
issues, according to the official.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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