South Korea's president-elect willing to meet North's leader

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
South Korea's president-elect said Monday that he would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Il anytime in efforts to improve relations and persuade the North to give up its nuclear weapons programs. Lee, who will be inaugurated Feb. 25, said he hopes a summit would take place in South Korea, because the two previous summits between the Koreas in 2000 and 2007 were held in the North Korean capital. "If the summit between the leaders of South and North Korea will be a help in pursuing the North to give up its nuclear programs and improve South-North Korean relations, I can meet him anytime," Lee Myung-bak told a news conference in Seoul. Lee, a conservative former mayor of Seoul, won last month's presidential election to end a decade of liberal rule in South Korea.