Lee 'positively assesses' N. Korean leader's trip to Russia

(ATTN: UPDATES with Lee's remarks in interview with Mongolian newspaper in last 6 paras; ADDS byline) By Chang Jae-soon ULAN BATOR, Aug. 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak "positively assesses" North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's ongoing trip to Russia as such a visit could help the isolated communist nation reform and open up to the outside world, his spokesman said. The North's leader has been on a trip to Russia since Saturday. Kim toured a hydroelectric power plant in eastern Siberia's Amur region on Sunday before leaving for Ulan-Ude, the third-largest city in eastern Siberia, for summit talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. It was his first trip to Russia since 2002. In Ulan Bator, Lee said that he "positively assesses" the North Korean leader's trip, presidential spokesman Park Jeong-ha said. Lee arrived in the Mongolian capital on Sunday night as part of a three-nation Central Asian tour that also includes stops in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. "The president believes that if the North's leader goes abroad and sees an open society, it would have a positive impact on North Korea's economic development," the spokesman said. "It is against this backdrop that he said he positively assesses the trip." South Korea and Russia are in close cooperation over Kim's visit, the spokesman said. In an interview with the Udriin sonin, a leading Mongolian daily, Lee renewed a proposal that the North's leader attend next year's Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, saying it would serve as a chance for Pyongyang to declare its denuclearization commitment and improve relations with the international community. During a visit to Berlin in May, Lee offered to invite the North's leader to the Nuclear Security Summit in March, which would bring together about 50 world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, if Pyongyang firmly commits to nuclear disarmament and apologizes for last year's two deadly attacks on the South. North Korea has been negative about the offer. "As I proposed during a trip to Europe, the door of opportunity is always open for National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il to attend next year's Nuclear Security Summit," Lee said in the interview published Monday. "It will serve as a significant chance for North Korea to make clear its commitment to freeze and dismantle its nuclear programs and declare new relations and economic cooperation with the international community," he said. Lee also said that the South has been making steady efforts for unification with the North, believing that unification would eliminate the danger of nuclear proliferation and strengthen democracy and market economy in Northeast Asia.