A top opposition leader on Friday urged President Lee Myung-bak to hold a summit with North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il this year with no conditions attached, calling it the "last chance" before Lee's term ends.
"President Lee should make a decision to open an inter-Korean summit without attaching conditions," Park Jie-won, floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), said during his special lecture to the South Jeolla provincial education office.
"Lee does not have much time left. This year is the last chance," said Park. Lee has two years left before his five-year term ends in early 2013.
Park was one of the most trusted aides for the late President Kim Dae-jung, who held the first inter-Korean summit with the North Korean
leader Kim in June 2000. It was followed by the second one between Kim and then South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun in 2007.
Inter-Korean relations have worsened since the conservative President Lee took office the following year and vowed to link cross-border ties to the North's denuclearization.
Relations fell to their lowest ebbs in decades after 50 South Koreans died last year in the North's shelling of a border island and the sinking of a South Korean warship, also blamed on the North.
Lee, through the summit, needs to tenaciously try to persuade Kim to understand that his decision to give up the nuclear arms programs
would eventually benefit the country, Park said.
"We hope President Lee will be remembered in Korean history as a president who succeeded in resolving peace, economy and nuclear issues
on the Korean Peninsula and who did his best to achieve reunification of the divided peninsula."
On Pyongyang's recent offer for inter-Korean talks to discuss possible volcanic activities at its landmark mountain, Park praised Seoul for answering positively to the offer.
"It was good for the government to show a positive position," he said.
Mount Paektu, North Korea's highest mountain on the border with China, last erupted in 1903, but experts have warned that it may have
an active core, citing topographical signs and satellite images.
Recent earthquakes in China have deepened concerns over an eruption, with some Chinese experts setting the date as early as 2014.
Park urged Seoul to immediately accept the offer since it needs to conduct joint research with the North to see if there is any chance of
an eruption and develop the talks into a summit between leaders of the two Koreas.