U.S. officials are upset by the Korean summit between the South's Roh Moo-Hyun and the North’s Kim Jong-Il, especially Roh's failure to gain any ground in advancing the denuclearization goals of the six-party talks.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, right and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun exchange joint statement after they signed it in Pyongyang, on Oct. 4.
Korea/Reuters
Roh was unable to gain any concessions from Kim, such as agreeing to allow South Korea to be a signatory to any peace treaty to formally end the Korean War. The summit statement says three or four nations would be involved, and while Seoul says this is a reference to excluding China, U.S. officials say it is aimed at South Korea, which the North officially views as a “puppet regime.”
Also, economic and social issues were not tied to North Korea following through with its obligations to dismantle its nuclear weapons.
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The summit rewarded the communist regime while putting off for further study issues of importance to the South, showing the one-sided nature of the meeting.
South Korea also will lose sovereignty over waters near its west coast through a joint fishing area agreement.
According to one source, the pro-North Korea Unification Ministry pushed the issue over objections from the Defense Ministry and military.
