By Xinhua
Seoul : South Korea Monday welcomed the agreement reached between North Korea and the US under which Pyongyang is to close down its nuclear weapons programme by the end of 2007.
“The denuclearisation agreement between North Korea and the US is a part of the ongoing Korean peninsula peace process that would extend to the South Korea-US summit, the six-party talks and the inter-Korean summit,” South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun’s spokesman Cheon Ho-seon told reporters Monday.
“The South Korean government will make full and thorough preparations for the upcoming (diplomatic) events,” Cheon added.
After a two-day meeting with North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan in Geneva, US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said Sunday that Pyongyang had agreed to a timeline for its denuclearisation for the first time since the nuclear crisis erupted in late 2002.
Friday afternoon, Roh and US President George W. Bush will hold talks on the sidelines of the meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Sydney, Australia, to discuss issues related to the Korean Peninsula and northeast Asian peace.
The White House said last week that the US hopes to discuss the goals of the upcoming inter-Korean summit and how it will advance the denuclearisation process on the Korean Peninsula when the two heads of state meet.
Roh is scheduled to travel to Pyongyang for an Oct 2-4 meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. The next full session of the six-party talks is expected to start in Beijing in mid-September.