[imText1]At the three-day inter-Korea Summit convened in Pyongyang from October 3rd, Kim Jong Il asked President Roh, \u201cDo you take a nap?\u201d He then showed off the state of his health by saying, \u201cDuring the past forty years of working, I have never taken a nap.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Minister of Unification, Lee Jae Jung, gave the above account of Kim Jong Il\u2019s health on October 10th when he had a luncheon with the editors of politics department of the press. \u201cHe looked just fine and did not lack concentration,\u201d the Minister said, \u201cHe could have had strain because of many meetings scheduled both in the morning and afternoon. But he looked ease and his posture remained composed the whole time.\u201d <\/p>\n
When asked whether Kim Jong Il had a lot of wine, the Minister Lee said, \u201che sipped his wine. Although many rounds of wine were offered, he drank a little.” Therefore, the words of some South Korean retinues that Kim Jong Il looked healthy because he drank a lot turned out to be exaggerated. <\/p>\n
As for Kim Jong Il\u2019s proposal to extent the Summit for one more day, the Minister said, \u201cHe was not serious about it in the first place.\u201d The Minister added, \u201cWhen the Chairman Kim said, \u2018I\u2019d like to offer you to stay one more day,\u2019 we took it seriously and tried to find out the true meaning behind his offer.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to Kim Jong Il\u2019s proposal, President Roh said, \u201cLet me discuss about it with the protocol officers and presidential guard team,\u201d avoiding replying on the spot. Thereupon, Kim Jong Il said, \u201cCouldn\u2019t you decide the matter on your own as the President? You have only to make your mind.\u201d And these words generated controversy over his true intention. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe offered the extension on a sudden. And it perplexed us. But the meeting began anyway,\u201d The Minister said, \u201cWe thought he meant to defer even the meeting. But what the Chairman Kim suggested was that we have a meeting today, take a break, watch \u2018Arirang\u2019 tomorrow, and do the paper work later on.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked whether Kim Jong Il offered the extension because he liked what was discussed at the meeting, the Minister said, \u201cNo. that was not the case. The Chairman Kim withdrew his offer five or six minutes after his initial proposal.\u201d The Minister added, \u201cChairman Kim proposed the extension at the beginning of the meeting. But he retracted from it before we proceed to the main issue.\u201d It is now clear that the North called the withdrawal of the extension offer by itself regardless of the mood of the meeting. <\/p>\n
The Minister also said, \u201cChairman Kim Jong Il called his protocol secretary and asked, \u201cWill it be rain tonight?\u201d\u201d When the secretary answered yes, Kim Jong Il said, \u201cIt is too bad that you cannot watch \u2018Arirang\u2019.\u201d The head of the United Front Department, Kim Yang Gun, who accompanied Kim Jong Il, said, \u201cIt is better to proceed with the whole meeting as planed since you have your own schedule in Seoul.\u201d <\/p>\n
In an answer to the question whether there were any difficulties during the process to work on the 2007 inter-Korean Summit Declaration, the Minister said, \u201cNo. The Chairman Kim checked and confirmed the contents of the Declaration by himself. He even directed to add some points to the paper.\u201d<\/p>\n
As to the extent of the implementation of the Declaration till the end of this year, the Minister said, \u201cfirst of all, we will hold inter-Korean prime-ministers\u2019 talks and defense-ministers\u2019 meetings. Then, a meeting for the Joint Committee for Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation will be convened. The Minister added, \u201con the matter of the end of the war declaration and building peace regime, it is too early to tell at the present time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[imText1]At the three-day inter-Korea Summit convened in Pyongyang from October 3rd, Kim Jong Il asked President Roh, \u201cDo you take a nap?\u201d He then showed off the state of his health by saying, \u201cDuring the past forty years of working, I have never taken a nap.\u201d The Minister of Unification, Lee Jae Jung, gave the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":5294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n