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The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Sunday refuted rumors that it had accepted some 200 million US dollars during a historic inter-Korean summit in 2000.
Some ultra-right conservatives in South Korea are spreading rumors that South Korea's Hyundai Group had provided a "secret fund" to Pyongyang for bringing out the summit between DPRK leader Kim Jong-il and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung in June 2000,a spokesman for the Korean Asia-Pacific Peace Committee said. Cooperation between the Korean Asia-Pacific Peace Committee and Hyundai Group had started before 1998, covering a wide range of fields, which had no connection with the June 2000 summit at all, the spokesman said.
The rumors are a product of the US hostile policy toward the DPRK aimed at preventing the inter-Korean relations from improving, he stressed.
The DPRK will never tolerate the ultra-right conservative forces, obstructive moves and challenges but will steadily develop the inter-Korean cooperation in the spirit of the North-South Joint Declaration, he said.
The remarks were made in respond to Thursday's announcement by the South's Board of Audit and Inspection that Hyundai Group provided a total of 223.5 billion won (200 million US dollars) in secret financial aid to the DPRK in 2000.
In June 2000, Kim Jong Il and Kim Dae-jung held the first historic summit in Pyongyang and signed the North-South Joint Declaration.
(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2003)
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