South Korea President to meet delegation from North

South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak will meet a delegation of visiting North Korean officials tomorrow, the latest sign that ties between the divided countries are warming.

South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak will meet a delegation of visiting North Korean officials tomorrow, the latest sign that ties between the divided countries are warming.

Relations between Pyongyang and Seoul have been tense since Mr Lee took office in February 2008 and he has not previously held talks with any officials from the North.

The meeting with North Korea's spy chief and five other officials will take place at the presidential Blue House said Chun Hae-sung, a spokesman for South Korea's Unification Ministry. The ministry handles relations with the North.

The North Koreans arrived in Seoul yesterday to mourn former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. Mr Kim, a champion of inter-Korean cooperation and dialogue who served as president from 1998 to 2003, died on Tuesday aged 85.

The visit - the first by a North Korean delegation to mourn a South Korean leader - comes amid recent signs of a thaw in relations between the two sides, which have remained divided since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

Kim Yang Gon, the spy chief who also handles relations with South Korea, met for 80 minutes earlier today with South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In-taek. The meeting was the first such top-level encounter in almost two years.

South Korea said the North Korean officials, who originally planned to return home this afternoon, requested a meeting with Mr Lee. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported they were carrying a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Kim Yong-hyun, a professor at Seoul's Dongguk University, said Mr Lee was probably reluctant to show eagerness to meet the North Koreans since it could invite a backlash from conservatives who oppose any indication of softness toward Pyongyang.

Indeed, about 100 demonstrators chanted "topple the Kim Jong Il dictatorship" today near the hotel where the North Korean officials were staying and ripped apart paper North Korean flags. There was a minor scuffle between the activists and police.

Tensions between the Koreas have spiked in recent months after North Korea's test of a second nuclear device in May and its firing of a series of ballistic missiles in July. It also withdrew from six-nation nuclear disarmament negotiations in April.

Earlier this month, however, the North released two detained US reporters after a visit to Pyongyang by former US President Bill Clinton.

North Korea also said recently it would lift restrictions on cross-border traffic with South Korea, resume cargo train service across the border and restart tourism ventures with Seoul.

A state funeral for Mr Kim, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his efforts to improve relations with North Korea, will be held tomorrow.

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