Koreas talk after breakthrough meeting
A high-level delegation from North Korea arrived in Seoul today for talks with the rival South in an atmosphere of optimism after North Korean leader Kim Jong-il pledged to seek reconciliation and hinted at a return soon to nuclear disarmament negotiations.
The North-South meetings that formally open tomorrow are aimed at normalising ties and elaborating on agreements made during a surprise meeting on Friday between Kim and the South’s top envoy to the North.
The North Korean delegation, led by senior cabinet councillor Kwon Ho Ung, declined to comment on their arrival at Incheon International Airport.
They went straight to a Seoul hotel where they were to exchange brief welcoming remarks before a dinner hosted by South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, head of the South’s delegation.
Chung met the North’s Kim in Pyongyang last week, where the two Koreas held anniversary celebrations of the landmark 2000 summit between Kim and then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
Chung said Kim pledged to return as soon as July to the nuclear talks that he has boycotted for a year, if the North gets appropriate respect from Washington.
The two sides also agreed verbally to work together on a variety of bilateral issues, which were expected to be discussed at the talks in Seoul running until Friday.
They follow meetings last month in the North Korean town of Kaesong that marked a resumption in contacts between the Koreas severed by Pyongyang for 10 months in anger over mass defections of its citizens to the South.
