ROK, DPRK to hold liaison office meeting in Kaesong

SEOUL - The Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) would hold a meeting between respective chiefs of the inter-Korean liaison offices in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong Friday, ROK's unification ministry said.

Lee Eugene, the unification ministry's deputy spokesperson, told a press briefing that Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung, the ROK liaison office head, was scheduled to have a meeting with Hwang Chung-song, deputy chief of the liaison office on the DPRK side.

The liaison office opened in September last year for the round-the-clock communications between the two countries. Since the opening, the ROK chief of the office have held a meeting with chief or deputy chief of the office on the DPRK side.

Friday's meeting came a day after the ROK and the United States started discussing DPRK issues at a video conference.

Asked about whether the two countries will discuss ROK's delivery of antiviral drugs to the DPRK during the liaison office meeting, the deputy spokesperson said overall inter-Korean issues had been discussed during the past liaison office meetings.

Seoul decided earlier this month to provide 200,000 doses of antiviral medication, Tamiflu, and 50,000 early medical detection kits, which were donated by a private entity, to Pyongyang.

If delivered, it would mark the first such delivery since 2009 when the ROK provided 400,000 doses of Tamiflu and 100,000 doses of Relenza antiviral drugs for the DPRK via a land route across the western inter-Korean border.