By Lee Jin-woo
Staff Reporter


Former President Kim Dae-jung has expressed his willingness to visit North Korea again as long as his health permits him to go on the trip, reports said.

In a recent interview with Monthly JoongAng magazine, Kim, 79, said, ``I’d like to visit North Korea again if my doctors say I’m healthy enough to go. I’ve been repeatedly invited by the North’s leadership to visit Pyongyang. Besides, President Roh Moo-hyun has also suggested I take a trip to the North.’’

The former president has been hospitalized twice at Yonsei University’s Severance Hospital in Seoul earlier this year due to pneumonia-like symptoms.

On Dec. 8, President Roh made a phone call to Kim to congratulate him on the fifth anniversary of his winning the Nobel Peace Prize, promising his administration’s support if Kim makes a trip to the communist North.

``I’ll visit the North not as a special envoy of President Roh, but as a person who is worried about the future of the peninsula,’’ he said.

He revealed his wish to discuss ways to establish a permanent communication channel based on the six-party framework to handle various issues for the sake of peace on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.

On the subject of South-North confederation, the first stage of three unification steps mentioned in his speech in commemoration of receiving the Nobel Prize, he said the two Koreas could set up a body, which will enable the heads of state, cabinet members, and lawmakers of the South and North to discuss and cooperate on a regular basis.

Though the confederation system will not be compulsory, it will greatly help the two Koreas take a big step toward our long dream of unification, reconciliation and development, he added.

In the speech, he described the confederation as ``a system where both the South and the North maintain their rights as sovereign states while gradually preparing for unification.’’

As for harsh criticism of the North recently made by ranking officials from the Bush administration, Kim said, ``I don’t believe those neo-cons have enough power to carry out what they claim into a military attack. South Korea has maintained an alliance with the U.S. in pursuit of peace on the peninsula, not a war.’’

Regarding rallies by anti-American protesters against a controversial statue of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, a U.S. commander in the Korean War (1950-53), in Inchon, west of Seoul, Kim reiterated his objection to removing the statue.

``What those protesters claim is like saying South Korea should have been completely occupied by the communist North during the Korean War,’’ Kim said. ``I’m not saying we should worship the general, but should appreciate his efforts and his commitment to saving the nation from communist takeover.’’

Kim said he regrets not making enough effort to narrow the gap between the haves and have-nots in Korean society during his administration.

``The information era tends to widen the gap between the upper and the lower half of society. The government should generate more and more policies to help less-privileged groups in society.’’

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