South Korean President Park Geun-hye said she is ready to hold a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un without any precondition and urged Pyongyang to promptly return to dialogue.
Park told a televised news conference on Monday that an end to North Korea’s nuclear program should be an important part of discussions for peace on the Korean peninsula but it was not a precondition to having a summit meeting, Al-Jazeera reported.
“My position is that to ease the pain of division and to accomplish peaceful unification, I am willing to meet with anyone,” Park said. “If it is helpful, I am up for a summit meeting with the North. There is no precondition.”
However, there is no sign of any concrete plan for a meeting between the two leaders. North and South Korean presidents have met only two times since the peninsula was divided at the end of World War II.
The two sides are still technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended only in a truce and not a peace treaty. More than 1.8 million troops are deployed on both sides of their heavily fortified border. But Park’s comments came after Kim said in a New Year’s address, “If the atmosphere and environment is there, there is no reason not to hold a high-level summit.”
