Co-Chairmen of U.N. Summit Hails Inter-Korean SummitThe co-chairpersons of the Millennium Summit Thursday extended a welcome to the June Inter-Korean summit and the follow-up measures, and encouraged the two parties to advance the process of dialogue in a bid to bring peace and stability to the Korean Peninsula.In a statement issued here Thursday, the co-chairmen of the Millennium Summit and the United Nations General Assembly, presidents of Finland and Namibia, said that they welcome the summit meeting held in Pyongyang in June this year between the leaders of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Republic of Korea (ROK). They also welcomed the Inter-Korean Joint Declaration "as a major breakthrough in bringing peace, stability and reunification to the Korean Peninsula," the statement said. They encouraged the two parties "to advance the process of dialogue so that it may eventually lead to the peaceful reunification of the peninsula while contributing to the peace and security of the region and beyond," the statement said. The summit between Kim Jong Il, chairman of DPRK's National Defense Commission, and Kim Dae-jung, president of ROK, has smoothly concluded in June in Pyongyang, thanks to the concerted efforts of both sides. Kim Yong Nam, head of the DPRK delegation to the Millennium Summit, canceled his visit to New York Tuesday after he and members of his delegation were forced to go through body search by U.S. airport security personnel during a stopover at the Frankfurt airport in Germany. U.S. President Bill Clinton, in his Thursday meeting with the South Korean president, voiced regret about a confrontation at the Frankfurt airport that led to the cancellation of the DPRK's participation in the Millennium Summit, which began Wednesday at the U.N. headquarters in New York. |
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