He did not say when the meetings would take place or disclose further details. Kim, meanwhile, said the summit would be unlikely to resolve any of the major issues dividing the sides. The June summit, announced jointly Monday by the two sides, would be the first between the two Koreas since the division of their peninsula into the communist North and the capitalist South in 1945. They share the world's most heavily armed border. Kim said economic assistance and cooperation, reunions of millions of separated family members and tension-easing measures will top the agenda in his talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
Economic benefits are the lure.
With its economy in tatters, North Korea has relied on outside aid since 1995 to feed its 22 million people. South Korean officials have already indicated the summit could spur their country to invest billion of dollars in building roads, ports, railroads, power plants and other infrastructure in North Korea. Other possible South Korean assistance includes shipments of fuel coal and fertilizer, they said. But Seoul officials worry the summit could be scrapped if North Korea persists in its long-running demand for the withdrawal of the 37,000 U.S. troops from South Korea. Another contentious issue is North Korea's insistence that the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War be replaced by a peace treaty to be signed between it and the United States, without the participation of South Korea.