Seoul: No inter-Korean summit in offing

HUA HIN, Thailand, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- South Korea is not actively seeking a summit with its North Korean neighbor, a senior Seoul official says.

Lee Dong-kwan, top public relations secretary to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, told reporters Saturday in Thailand that no such summit would take place unless significant progress between the countries could be assured, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

"I stress again it is our government's unchanging stance that we will not hold an inter-Korean summit that will simply end in a meeting of the leaders," Lee said while on a trip to the Thai beach resort town of Hua Hin for a regional forum hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Lee's comments echoed previous statements by the South Korean president that a summit would only happen if Pyongyang first agreed to completely give up its nuclear ambitions.

Hopes for such a summit, however, were raised when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was told by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il this month that he wished to improve ties with Seoul, Yonhap reported.