Six-nation powers upbeat on Korean summit

TOKYO (AFP) - The United States, United Nations and regional powers yesterday welcomed the announcement of a rare summit between the two Koreas, saying they hoped it would help efforts to disarm the communist North.

North and South Korea said they would stage only their second ever summit later this month in an attempt to bring lasting peace to a peninsula divided for 60 years by minefields and barbed wire.

South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun will travel to Pyongyang, the North's capital, to meet Kim Jong-Il from August 28-30, both sides said.

The United States said it hoped their talks would help fulfill the goals of the six-party talks on the North's nuclear weapons programme.

"We have long welcomed and supported North-South dialogue and hope that this meeting will help promote peace and security on the Korean peninsula, fulfilling the goals of the six-party talks," US State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore said.

The six-nation talks group the two Koreas, China, Japan, the United States and Russia, and are aimed at disarming the North in return for energy aid and diplomatic concessions.

Japan, which has long had tense relations with the reclusive North, said it wanted the summit, the first in seven years, to promote lasting peace.

But Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also hoped that the summit would address a longstanding row with North Korea over its past abductions of Japanese civilians to train its spies.

"The abduction issue is very important for Japan," said Abe, who has built his career talking tough on North Korea. "We have to solve this issue no matter what."

Abe, who suffered a major election defeat last week, said he ordered Foreign Minister Taro Aso to "let South Korea know about Japan's strong will and opinion."

Japan has refused to help fund February's aid-for-disarmament deal due to the kidnapping dispute.

China, one of North Korea's few international friends, looked forward to "positive results" from the summit.

"China supports everything that will benefit peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a statement posted on the ministry's website.

"As a neighbour of the Korean peninsula, China has consistently supported improvement of relations between North and South through dialogue."

China has a direct stake in Korean security, not least because it has hosted several rounds of the six-nation talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear programmes.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon commended the two Korean leaders for their initiative which was a "significant opportunity" to promote peace.