North and South Korea agreed today to postpone only the second-ever summit between leaders on the divided peninsula to early October due to recent floods that devastated the impoverished communist North.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il had been set to host South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun in Pyongyang for the first summit between the countries in seven years from Aug. 28-30. The event has now been rescheduled for Oct. 2-4, both Koreas said.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency said Pyongyang "unavoidably" made the delay request because the country has to focus on coping with the aftermath of the recent flooding.
"Torrential rain hit most of its areas every day, causing great damage, and this made it top priority to recover from the flood damage and make the living of the people in the afflicted areas return to normal," KCNA said.
The South's presidential office said the North reaffirmed in a message that it remained committed to holding a summit. Spokesman Chun Ho-seon told reporters that he does not believe there are any other motivations behind Pyongyang's decision to postpone the summit.
The North has said a week of storms destroyed 11 percent of its staple rice and corn fields. The U.N. warned the severe floods will worsen North Korea's food situation, and an aid group said the numbers of dead and missing from floods has risen to more than 300.
On Friday, South Korea offered the North a $7.5 million emergency aid package.
The South Korean president's office said it would try to deliver the announced aid as early as possible and consider providing more assistance.
The United States, Germany and Singapore have also offered to help Pyongyang cope with the storms, which have drawn unusual candor from the usually secretive regime.
The impoverished North has been unable to feed its people without outside help since a famine began in the mid-1990s.
AP