Looks like to minimize the political fallout of the elections, the GNP wants the summit to be held after the elections. While that seems to make political sense, it will negate the purpose to make the embattled Roh to look good.
This part of the article was pretty funny:
Presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-seon dismissed speculation that the postponement has a political motive.
Duh, you think? The whole thing is political. Regardless if it is on the liberal or conservative side. Election time is not what somebody would call non-partisan.
Seoul officials, in the meantime, expressed hope that the October summit meeting will help create synergy for ridding the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons, given that a fresh round of six-party talks aimed at dismantling the North’s nuclear weapons program is to take place ahead of the Korean summit.
In a six-way working group meeting in China from Aug. 16-17, North Korea made a renewed pledge that it will live up to the Feb. 13 nuclear pact aimed at scrapping the North’s nuclear weapons programs in return for political and economic aid.
Perhaps it is time to give Kim Jong Il the bird and let the government go away. Yes, the landing is going to be hard, but the sooner it is done the better.
See, the reason why I say this is because Kim is backing out on the deal (as usual) and the game of cat and mouse continues. A good example of the never-ending talks is on One Free Korea’s posting. Pyongyang is not declaring all the stuff they have, and the Christopher Hill danced around the issue which tells me not a lot of progress has been made. Yet at the same time, money is thrown at it in hopes Kim will change. Kim will never change.
Nor will the summit do much either. The summit 2000 did not do much at all. Kim tested missiles and bombs after that date, so obviously did not hold his end of the bargain. The same will happen now.
So yes, it is political, and I seriously doubt the summit will be held after the elections. The whole purpose of why it is being held will be moot. Let’s hope a new president will make things better.
Only time will tell with that one.
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