Two Koreas to hold summit amid scepticism

North and South Korea announced their first summit in seven years yesterday, but critics said it was mostly domestic politicking and doubted it would help the international push to make Pyongyang abandon nuclear weapons.

The August 28-30 meeting will be only the second between leaders of Asia's fourth-biggest economy and its impoverished, communist neighbour in the north, divided since the end of World War II and still technically at war.

Both sides were full of optimism in their simultaneous surprise announcement of the summit in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, between South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and the North's leader, Kim Jong-il.

"(It) will help inter-Korean relations and provide fresh momentum to improve North Korea's international relations," Mr Roh was quoted by a spokesman as saying, adding it would give impetus to the denuclearisation efforts.

The two sides will hold preparatory talks in Kaesong, a South Korean-funded industrial estate just inside the North and close to the densely fortified buffer zone that has divided the mountainous peninsula for more than 50 years.

They have yet to agree a formal peace treaty to their 1950-53 war, which ended in a truce.

Pyongyang has made its first significant move as agreed in six-country talks hosted by Beijing, shutting down its nuclear reactor and source of material for atomic weapons.

However, analysts say it will be a nearly impossible task to convince the paranoid North to give up its nuclear weapons altogether, as it is being pressed to do in the talks that group the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the US.

Pyongyang has long argued that the US will first have to withdraw its 30,000 troops stationed in the South.

The US and China, the nearest the hermit-like North has to an ally, both welcomed the planned summit.

"This suits the fundamental interests of the 70 million people on the peninsula, and also benefits regional peace and stability," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.

The announcement did nothing to tone down the routine anti-South Korean comments in Pyongyang's state media.

The North Korean KCNA news agency, commenting after the summit announcement on planned annual US-South Korea military manoeuvres, accused Seoul of "provocative sabre rattling" and "an intolerable criminal act".

"The summit is not going to contribute to the resolution of the nuclear issue in any way. But be prepared for another wave of unification euphoria in the South," said Brian Myers, associate professor of international relations at Dongseo University and a North Korea specialist. Lee Dong-bok, senior associate at the Centre for Strategic & International Studies in Seoul, also saw little impact from the meeting on the disarmament talks.

"The summit appears to have more to do with South Korea's presidential election in December. Whether the left-wing government in South Korea is surviving is a key concern for North Korea too," Mr Lee said.

Shi Yinhong, a professor of international security at the People's University of China in Beijing, agreed.

"Realistically, I think that Kim Jong-il's main aim is to give a boost to the opponents of the (South Korean) Grand National Party in the next elections, to try to minimise their chances of success."