President Roh Tae-woo will invite Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev to visit South Korea when the two meet next week, newspapers said today. A North Korean official denounced the planned meeting. Several Seoul newspapers quoted high-ranking government sources as saying Gorbachev will be invited to visit Korea after his trip to Japan, planned for next April. The Roh-Gorbachev meeting Monday will be the first between leaders of the two countries, which have no diplomatic ties. The Soviet Union is a close ally of Seoul's rival, communist North Korea, to which it provides arms. North Korea's official news agency today quoted a Foreign Ministry official as denouncing the planned meeting between Roh and Gorbachev. ``If President Gorbachev has a meeting with Roh Tae-woo, which we do not think will take place, it will be a serious political issue,'' the official was quoted as saying. The report by the Korean Central News Agency was monitored in Tokyo. ``We consider that the president of the Soviet Union, an ally of ours, is quite able to analyze and judge what a serious political consequence will be entailed by his meeting with Roh Tae-woo, who is seeking only the split of Korea,'' the report said. The Korean Peninsula was divided into the communist North and capitalist South at the end of World War II in 1945. The two sides fought the Korean War in 1950-53. A South Korean official said today that the agenda for the Roh-Gorbachev talks will include the normalization of relations between Seoul and Moscow, economic cooperation and peace measures on the divided Korean peninsula. Kim Kim Chong-hwi, presidential assistant for foreign affairs, expressed optimism about the chances for formal relations. ``The meeting itself shows that the Soviet Union recognizes the Republic of (South) Korea,'' he was quoted as telling the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper. Dong-A Ilbo said Roh and Gorbachev are expected to agree on an early establishment of diplomatic ties, possibly before September. Seoul officials hope the Roh-Gorbachev meeting will help ease tension on the peninsula. They believe improved ties with the Soviet Union will result in better relations between the two Koreas.
