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World

North Korea demanded $10 billion for summit with South Korea, says ex-Seoul leader

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    FILE - In this June 25, 2010 file photo, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak speaks during a ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War in Seoul, South Korea. Late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il repeatedly pushed for summit talks with South Korea before his 2011 death but the plans failed because Pyongyang demanded $10 billion and large-scale shipments of food and fertilizer, Lee said in a memoir to be published next week, the first wee of February 2015. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File) (The Associated Press)

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    FILE - In this Oct. 10, 2010 photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il applauds following a massive military parade marking the 65th anniversary of the communist nation's ruling Workers' Party in Pyongyang, North Korea. The late North Korean leader repeatedly pushed for summit talks with South Korea before his 2011 death but the plans failed because Pyongyang demanded $10 billion and large-scale shipments of food and fertilizer, former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said in a memoir to be published next week, the first week of February 2015. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File) (The Associated Press)

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    FILE - In this Feb. 25, 2013 file photo, South Korea's outgoing President Lee Myung-bak, right, walks with new President Park Geun-hye after Park's inauguration ceremony as the 18th South Korean president at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea. Late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il repeatedly pushed for summit talks with South Korea before his 2011 death but the plans failed because Pyongyang demanded $10 billion and large-scale shipments of food and fertilizer, Lee said in a memoir to be published next week, the first week of February, 2015. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File) (The Associated Press)

SEOUL, South Korea – A former South Korean president says that late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il repeatedly pushed for summit talks with him. But he says the plans failed because Pyongyang demanded $10 billion and large-scale shipments of food and fertilizer.

Key parts of the memoir by ex-President Lee Myung-bak were provided Thursday to reporters in advance ahead of its publication next week.

The memoir reveals that senior officials from the two Koreas made secret visits to the opposing countries in 2010, when two deadly attacks blamed on Pyongyang killed 50 South Koreans.

Lee says a Pyongyang envoy who came south was later publicly executed after returning to the North.

The Koreas have held two summit talks in 2000 and 2007 since their division 70 years ago.