Pyongyang a security 'island' for North-South summit: No traffic in or out of city
SEOUL — The North Korean capital Pyongyang has been shut tight for over two weeks since Sept. 15 in an extraordinary security lockdown before the second-ever North-South summit, according to dispatches by the South Korean advance team and other sources.
South Korea's Roh Moo-hyun waves as he walk with Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang, on Oct. 2.
Reuters
“Pyongyang is now an island,” said an intelligence source in Seoul. “The entire security forces in the country have been mobilized to block all the roads and transportation into Pyongyang.”
The sources said until the day President Roh leaves Pyongyang on Oct. 5, only trains will be permitted to enter Pyongyang.
Also In This Edition
“And the trains will carry only security personnel and soldiers,” a source said.
Not only has traffic to and from Pyongyang been suspended but the customs offices on both side of Sino-North Korean border will be closed until Oct. 7. In addition, the North Korean People’s Army has been put under special alert.
South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun will stay in Pyongyang only three days from Oct. 2 for the second South-North inter-Korean summit meeting with his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-Il.
Visitors from Seoul also noted the mobilization of North Koreans to clean the city.
“They were even mopping the board blocks of streets with rags and water,” an advance team member reported.
Chosun Shinbo, the official publication of pro-North organization in Japan, reported that a massive clean-up operation was being conducted around the unification monument where welcoming ceremony for visiting president Roh will be held.
“Pyongyang must be the cleanest city in the world right now — on top of the most isolated one,” the advance staffer reported.
