Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap[Yonhap headline: “Seoul To Allow Private Radio Transmission To NK”]
WASHINGTON, April 17 (Yonhap) - South Korea will consider revising a policy that prohibits private radio broadcasters from transmitting to North Korea, President Lee Myung-bak [Yi Myo’ng-pak] told American legislators Thursday.
Rep. Ed Royce (R-California) said he raised the issue when he, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other legislators met the president. “He said the broadcasting was important and they were looking at a policy that would allow private broadcasting into North Korea from South Korea,” Royce said in a teleconference with reporters.
The prohibitions were put in place in 2000 to disallow privately funded radio stations based in Seoul from transmitting to North Korea. “Some of those stations actually operate today despite this ban,” the congressman said. “But it’s important that these stations have the right to broadcast.”
President Lee, elected from a conservative base, arrived in Washington on Wednesday. He will hold summit talks with US President George W Bush at Camp David on Saturday.
[Passage on summit talks omitted]
(Source: Yonhap news agency, Seoul, in English 2303 gmt 17 Apr 08 via BBC Monitoring/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)