Former Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun says that in early 2003 North Korea proposed an inter-Korean summit in a third country but the South declined, citing a lack of urgency.

Jeong made the remark Friday at a forum in Washington on last week's inter-Korean summit, responding to a question on why North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has not yet visited Seoul after former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung's visit to Pyongyang for the first summit.

He also said that U.S. President George W. Bush had first proposed a three-way summit to replace the Korean War armistice with a peace treaty, which the two Koreas agreed to in last week's summit.

Jeong was unification minister in the latter Kim Dae-jung administration and early Roh Moo-hyun government.