2 Koreas to hold first talks in a year

SEOUL: The Republic of Korea (ROK) yesterday accepted a rare proposal by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for talks over a joint factory park north of their heavily armed border as global powers try to prevent Pyongyang from restarting its nuclear arms plant.

The ROK will send a team of about 10 officials to the Kaesong industrial complex tomorrow, where the DPRK has been holding an ROK worker captive for weeks, a Unification Ministry spokeswoman said.

The move comes after the DPRK expelled international nuclear inspectors and said it would restart its Yongbyon nuclear plant that makes bomb-grade plutonium in response to being chastised by the United Nations for a rocket launch earlier this month seen as a disguised long-range missile test.