Backgrounder: Inter-Korean summit (original) (raw)

BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun will meet in Pyongyang on Aug. 28-30 for the second inter-Korean summit.

Since the 1990s, the DPRK and South Korea have been trying to explore ways to ease the tension in their relations, proposing to hold high-level meetings between the two sides.

On April 8, 2000, the DPRK and South Korea signed an agreement to reaffirm the three principles for national reunification, namely peace, independence and national unity, as set in the 1972 North-South Joint Communique.

The two sides also announced that the then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and the DPRK leader Kim Jong Il would hold an inter-Korean summit in the DPRK capital of Pyongyang on June 12-14.

On June 13, 2000, Kim Jong Il shook hands with the then South Korean leader Kim Dae-jung at Sun'an airport in Pyongyang, the first time in more than 50 years of the peninsula's division.

The two sides inked the North-South Joint Declaration, in which the two leaders agreed to start exchange of visits by separated family members, boost balanced development of the national economy and promote exchanges and cooperation in various fields.

Since the first inter-Korean summit, the DPRK and South Korea have held many rounds of ministerial meetings, economic talks, and general-level military talks, but a new round of summit has not beheld yet.