Korean leaders to sign peace pact

SEOUL: The leaders of South and North Korea have agreed on a summit declaration calling for peace and closer economic cooperation which they will sign later on Thursday in Pyongyang, a Seoul spokesman said.

President Roh Moo-Hyun, who is paying only the second visit by a South Korean leader to Pyongyang, will sign the declaration with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il at 1:00 pm (0400 GMT), Roh's spokesman Cheon Ho-Seon said.

The two leaders "have agreed to sign a joint declaration on the development of inter-Korean relations, peace and prosperity," he said in the North Korean capital, according to a pool report.

Yonhap News said the declaration would include setting up a special "peace zone" in the Yellow Sea west of the Korean peninsula, the scene of bloody naval clashes in 1999 and 2002.

The North does not recognise the Northern Limit Line drawn up unilaterally by United Nations forces at the end of the 1950-53 Korean war. After the signing, Kim will host a farewell lunch for Roh and the South Korean delegation before they return to Seoul, Roh's spokesman said.

Further details were not immediately available. Roh had earlier said that peace and prosperity would be the overriding themes of the meeting between two nations, which are still technically at war.

But any peace declaration would be mainly symbolic without a multilateral treaty signed by the United States and China, which also took part in the war.

The liberal Hankyoreh newspaper, which supports Roh's peace agenda, said that the declaration would likely include a broad expression of will to solve the nuclear issue, establish peace, ease military tension and build trust.

North Korea this week also agreed in a six-nation deal to declare all of its nuclear programmes and disable its Yongbyon reactor by the end of the year.