The South Korean government has no immediate plan to dispatch a special envoy to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to help resolve the nuclear issue and ease inter-Korean ties in the midst of the standoff, the South Korean presidential spokesman said Wednesday.

"We've never considered nor talked about such a plan," South Korean Presidential spokesman Kim Jong-min said.

The spokesman was responding to a report that Lee Bu-young, head of the ruling Uri Party, may ask former president and Nobel Peace winner Kim Dae-jung to visit the DPRK to help resolve the dispute over nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.

Kim Dae-jung, whose presidential term ended in early 2003, met DPRK's top leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang in 2000 in the first-ever inter-Korean summit, which helped him win the Nobel Peace Prize the same year.

Kim Jong-min said Lee's remarks have nothing to do with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's intentions, adding "President Roh never discussed an inter-Korean summit or the sending of a specialenvoy to North Korea (DPRK) when he met with Uri Chairman Lee and floor leader Chun Jung-bae to congratulate Lee for his inauguration as party chairman."

The spokesman stressed that it was incorrect to say that Chairman Lee was talking about the special envoy based on his discussions with President Roh on the issue.

In an interview with a local daily on Oct. 7, Kim Dae-jung saidhe would like to do something indirectly to help ease the strained inter-Korean relationship and hinted at the possibility of his going to DPRK to broker inter-Korean rapprochement.

Roh said in July that he will not seek an inter-Korean summit meeting for the time being, citing a lack of sufficient progress in ongoing multilateral talks to resolve the nuclear issue.

Source: Xinhua