Israeli President Shimon Peres arrived in Seoul yesterday for a working-level summit amid concerns the visit’s timing could negatively affect South Korea’s diplomatic efforts to censure North Korea at the UN.
Seoul appealed to the UN Security Council on Friday to punish Pyongyang, accusing the North of blowing apart one of its warships with a torpedo, killing 46 sailors. It was the first time Seoul has taken Pyongyang to the Security Council over an inter-Korean dispute, despite a history of being attacked by the North.
South Korea has been working to garner international backing for the diplomatic action. Israel, meanwhile, has come under intense international criticism for its raid on a ship carrying aid to Hamas-ruled Gaza that killed eight Turks and a Turkish-American.
Israel claims its troops acted in self-defense.
South Korean media reports have voiced worry over possibly risking its diplomatic effort against North Korea at the UN by hosting Peres and potentially being seen as favoring Israel.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Sunday that Seoul “lowered the status” of Peres’ trip from an official “state visit” to a routine “working visit” because of “international pressure in the wake of Israel’s deadly raid” on the Gaza-bound flotilla. The report did not cite any sources.
Peres’ office strongly denied the claim, saying that the planned trip was originally meant as a working visit.
The trip was not initially intended as a state visit, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said describing it as a working visit. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.
Peres will meet South Korean President Lee Myung-bak tomorrow, Lee’s office said.
They will discuss “the political relationship between the two countries and the potential for increased economic and technological cooperation,” Peres’ office said.
He will also tour some research and development centers.
He had been scheduled to receive an honorary doctorate at Korea University and deliver a speech there during his trip, but both events were canceled, the South Korean Foreign Ministry official said.
Ministry spokesman Kim Young-sun said Israeli embassy officials had pushed for the two events to take place, but they later gave up on the plan. He provided no reason.
In other developments, China said yesterday that a North Korean border guard shot and killed three Chinese and wounded a fourth at the border on Friday, prompting a formal complaint from Beijing.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman in Beijing said the guard shot four residents of the Chinese border town of Dandong, apparently on suspicion that they were crossing the border for illegal trade.
Beijing has filed a formal complained, he said
There have been some reports in South Korean media on the incident, though the North has not acknowledged the shootings..
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