SOUTH KOREA:For the first time in seven years, leaders from North and South Korea will face each other across a table as tensions between the two bitter rivals appear to be easing over the nuclear issue.
Yesterday's announcement that South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun would meet the North's leader, Kim Jong-il, in Pyongyang, was issued in an upbeat tone and prompted optimism about easing tensions on the peninsula.
Mr Roh said the summit would "help inter-Korean relations and provide fresh momentum to improve North Korea's international relations", while the North Koreans said the talks could lead to "a new phase of peace on the Korean peninsula, co-prosperity of the nation and national reunification".
Korea watchers said North Korea's agreement to hold a second inter-Korean summit was an attempt to improve relations with the US, and possibly normalise diplomatic ties. Pyongyang was also keen to win more aid from Seoul and influence South Korean presidential elections in December.
There have been rumours in recent months that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has health problems and is keen to secure his legacy. He reportedly underwent heart surgery in Germany and is supposed to be looking for an heir.
The two powers from each side of the demilitarised zone (DMZ) that divides the peninsula will meet from August 28th-30th in the North Korean capital. It will be only the second meeting between the two countries, which have still to agree formal peace terms since hostilities in the Korean War ceased in 1953.
South Korea is the fourth biggest economy in Asia and one of the world's richest countries, producing world-famous cars and electronic goods, while North Korea is a secretive Stalinist state, teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and an international pariah because of its nuclear weapons programme.
The Bush administration, Pyongyang's chief ally, China, and the rest of the UN were outraged when the communist state conducted its first nuclear bomb test in October last year.
Since then, six-party talks involving both Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan have reached a deal which culminated in Pyongyang shutting down its operating nuclear reactor in Yongbyon last month in exchange for energy aid.
The reaction from China, which is keen to boost its diplomatic standing with the six-party talks and also wants stability in the region, was positive.
"China has consistently supported the North and South sides of the peninsula improving relations through dialogue. This suits the fundamental interests of the 70 million people on the peninsula, and also benefits regional peace and stability," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao.
While tensions are easing on the mountainous peninsula, getting the North to abandon its nuclear weapons entirely will prove difficult, particularly as Pyongyang is convinced the US plans to invade. A major sticking point for Pyongyang is the fact that 30,000 US troops are stationed in the south.
The two sides will hold preparatory talks in Kaesong, a South Korean-sponsored industrial development zone just inside the North, close to the DMZ.
Analysts warn against expecting too much from the talks. Although the summit means the two Koreas are talking, there is still little love lost between them, and it was anti-Seoul business-as-usual on Pyongyang's KCNA news agency. Commenting on forthcoming US-South Korea joint military manoeuvres, KCNA said Seoul was guilty of "provocative sabre-rattling" and "an intolerable criminal act".
