North Korea, South Korea talk to pursue cooperation
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-06-23 13:53

North Korea and South Korea hashed out details of family reunions and military contacts across their Cold War border during reconciliation talks Thursday.

North Korean delegation to the Cabinet-level talks in Seoul also planned a rare meeting with South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun. That follows a South Korean minister's meeting last week in Pyonyang with the North Korea's Kim Jong Il — who raised hopes of a breakthrough in his nuclear standoff with the international community.

South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young and Kwon Ho-ung (R), head of the North Korean delegation, walk together at their luncheon meeting at a hotel in Seoul June 23, 2005. [Reuters]

Kim said last week that the North could return to international disarmament talks as soon as next month if the nation gets appropriate respect from the United States. It has been a year since those talks last convened June 23, 2004, with the North refusing to return citing "hostile" U.S. policies.

The timing for the meeting with Roh was uncertain. A North Korean delegation last met a South Korean leader at the presidential Blue House in September 2001.

Lower-level officials were trying to negotiate a joint statement for this week's inter-Korean by Thursday's scheduled end of meetings, said the South's Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hong-je.

South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young (R) and Kwon Ho-ung, head of the North Korean delegation, speak during their luncheon meeting at a hotel in Seoul June 23, 2005. [Reuters]

That would indicate smoother talks than previous rounds that were extended by wrangling over the statement. The warm atmosphere was emphasized Thursday when the two sides sat intermixed at luncheon tables.

"The two sides are working to set dates for proposals for inter-Korean contacts the South made," the spokesman said.

South Korea has proposed that Seoul and Pyongyang resume military talks next month. It also requested that family reunions at the North's Diamond Mountain resort restart in August, and that relatives unable to make the trip be allowed to see each other via the Internet.

As the talks opened Wednesday, South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young urged the North to make good on Kim's pledge and rejoin the nuclear negotiations in July. The North has insisted at earlier negotiations with the South that the nuclear issue can only be resolved with Washington.

North Korea has repeated at the Seoul talks that it wouldn't need any nuclear weapons if Washington would drop its allegedly hostile policies toward the North.

"If the United States treats the North in a friendly manner, we will possess not one nuclear weapon," the North's delegation was quoted as saying by Kim Chun-shick, a spokesman for the South's side.

On Wednesday, the U.S. government said it will provide 50,000 tons of food to North Korea in a humanitarian decision that it said was unrelated to efforts to convince Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

The main U.S. envoy on the issue said he would be interested in meeting the North's leader Kim.

"I'm more than willing to meet Chairman Kim Jong Il and hope to meet him," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said in a message posted Wednesday on a Web site run by the U.S. Embassy in Seoul.

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