Nuke Security Summit

North Korea Officially Invited to Nuke Security Summit

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

image courtesy of:  dailymail.co.uk

North Korea has received an official invitation to have leader Kim Jong Il meet with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak at the 2012' Global Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, the Yonhap News Agency reported on Wednesday (see GSN, May 13).

Lee last week said Kim was welcome to attend the summit if he would first recommit his government to permanent denuclearization and acknowledge Pyongyang's guilt in two 2010 incidents that left 50 South Koreans dead.

"The genuine intention of our government has been delivered to the North," said an official in Seoul, continuing that personal South Korean contact with North Korean officials had been made in extending the offer.

The official provided no other specifics of the matter.

North Korea was not invited to the first nuclear security summit, held last year in Washington (see GSN, April 14, 2010). The second summit is to focus again on enhancing international efforts to secure all stocks of nuclear materials.

"We hope there will be more specific discussions between the South and the North if there is an opportunity in the future," the official said.

The North last week derided the offer from Seoul as "ridiculous." While South Korean officials are still waiting for a formal answer, observers say Pyongyang is not likely to take up the invitation. The point for Seoul might be more to lean on its neighbor to accept denuclearization and move forward on diplomacy between the two longtime antagonists, experts say (Yonhap News Agency, May 18
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