U.S. President to Begin Visit to S.Korea Tuesday

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, February 19, 2002

U.S. President to Begin Visit to S.Korea Tuesday

United States President George W.Bush will arrive here Tuesday afternoon for a three-day visit which South Korea is longing for with great concerns.

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United States President George W.Bush will arrive here Tuesday afternoon for a three-day visit which South Korea is longing for with great concerns.

South Korean Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Choi Sung-hong said the summit between President Kim Dae-jung and President Bush on Wednesday will be significant amid the new international security environment formed after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Choi said President Kim is to emphasize the two countries' decades-long security alliance and discuss issues related to peaceon the Korean Peninsula as out of the 180 countries with which South Korea has diplomatic relations, the United States is its sole ally.

Kim and Bush are expected to reaffirm their countries' call for the resumption of Seoul-Pyongyang and Pyongyang-Washington dialogues.

Analysts here said the two presidents will focus on discussion of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and conventional weapons program of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

"During the summit, Kim will also express support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism," Choi said.

After the summit, the two leaders will be scheduled to visit the newly-opened Dorasan station on the inter-Korean railway, some 700 meters to the southern part of the demilitarized zone, where Bush is due to give a speech. The station, which once linked Seoul and Pyongyang, is seen as symbol of inter-Korean unification efforts.

Bush's visit comes at a time when tensions escalate on the Korean Peninsula after the U.S. president labeled the DPRK as partof an "axis of evil" last month.

Anxiety is running high and pessimistic speculation is widely-spread among South Koreans due to the U.S. president's tough remarks toward the DPRK.

In the past days, South Korean civic and students organizations held a series of demonstrations to protest against Bush's hard-line stance toward Pyongyang, saying it has dealt a blow to efforts for inter-Korean reconciliation.

The South Korean military has been on stand-by for any emergencies ahead of Bush's visit and has deployed troops around key places.

Reconnaissance satellites and high-altitude U-2 reconnaissance planes hovering over the peninsula reportedly are closely monitoring the maneuvering of the DPRK army along the demarcation line.

South Korea is Bush's second leg of his week-long tour of Northeast Asia, which has taken him to Japan and will carry him to China Thursday.

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