SEOUL, March 7 (UPI) -- South Korea's former prime minister and lawmaker left for North Korea on Wednesday amid speculation that his visit is aimed at arranging an inter-Korean summit.
Lee Hae-chan and his ruling Uri Party denied the alleged secret mission, saying the visit is just part of government efforts to expand cross-border contacts on the back of the recent accord on ending the North's nuclear drive.
But the main opposition party suspects the high-profile politician is visiting Pyongyang as President Roh Moo-hyun's special envoy for talks on a second inter-Korean summit because he is one of closest confidants of Roh who is pushing for reconciliation and cooperation with North Korea.
Lee, who has also served as a special advisor to Roh for political affairs and chairman of the Uri Party's Northeast Asia Peace Committee, played a key role in the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, which sparked an unprecedented reconciliation and unification fever on the divided Korean peninsula.
The opposition Grand National Party suspects the ruling camp is pushing for a second inter-Korean summit to influence South Korea's presidential election slated for December.
Lee dismissed the allegation, saying it is not the time to raise the issue of a summit, citing lingering tensions over the North's nuclear weapons drive. "I will exchange a broad range of ideas (with North Korean officials) that will help foster peace on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia," Lee told reporters just before leaving for Pyongyang.
He also said he doesn't have any plans to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, stressing he is traveling to the North at the invitation of the North's Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation.
But Lee Hwa-young, a ruling lawmaker who accompanies the former prime minister on his North Korea visit, said they may discuss a possible inter-Korean summit during their visit.
During his four-day stay in the North, Lee plans to meet the North's No. 2 leader Kim Yong Nam, chairman of the presidium of the legislative Supreme People's Assembly, and other ranking officials for talks on establishing peace on the peninsula.
On his way back home, Lee is also scheduled to meet with China's State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan in Beijing to discuss how to follow up last month's nuclear agreement on scrapping the North's nuclear programs and promote peace on the Korean peninsula.
Just ahead of Lee's North Korea visit, Seoul's Unification Ministry said South Korea is seeking to play a more active role in establishing a peace regime on the Korean peninsula as the North has started talks with the United States for a peace treaty to replace the armistice mechanism on the peninsula.
"The Korea issue is not the only thing the United States sees, so we have to be more active in transforming the current situation into a peace regime," Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said on a local radio program.
The peninsula still remains technically in a state of war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended without a peace treaty. Their border is the world's last Cold War flashpoint with nearly 2 million troops on both sides.
Lee's Pyongyang visit will be followed by high-profile efforts by the Uri Party to improve ties with the North Korea. A group of party leaders is scheduled to travel to the North Korean border town of Kaesong that houses an inter-Korean joint industrial complex, seen as the key symbol of Seoul's engagement policy toward the North.
The anti-communist opposition party denounced the moves as part of efforts to arrange inter-Korean summit talks to rekindle the reconciliation fever and drum up supports ahead of December's presidential poll. A possible inter-Korean summit can boost the popularity of Roh's party which has sought reconciliation with the North, according to polling agencies.
"Lee's visit is nothing more than an effort to arrange an inter-Korean summit," the GNP said in a statement. "The visit is aimed at preventing the GNP taking power in the presidential election," it said.
North Korea has warned South Koreans against voting for the GNP candidate in the presidential election, showing its concerns that the anti-communist party may take power in the South.
The North is struggling to rebuild its shattered economy largely on the back of assistance from the ruling pro-unification camp in the South which has pushed for reconciliation and cooperation with the communist neighbor for the past decade.
If the GNP wins the presidential poll, however, the South's economic aid programs could be reviewed or conditioned, which could deliver a blow to the North's efforts to rebuild its economy.
