North and South Korean officials on Wednesday resumed talks to work out details regarding a planned visit by former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung to the North Korean capital Pyongyang next month, officials at Seoul's Unification Ministry said.
The sides were expected to conclude the talks later in the day after finalizing the timing and means of Kim's second visit to the communist state, the officials said.
The former South Korean president visited Pyongyang in June 2000 to hold the first-ever inter-Korean summit with the North's reclusive leader, Kim Jong-il.
Kim's planned meeting in June with the North Korean leader comes at the height of Seoul's efforts to break the impasse in international negotiations over the North's nuclear program through its bilateral relations with Pyongyang.
Seoul's point man on North Korea, Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, had said the former president "is the only one who can grab [the North Korean leader] Kim by the ear" and tell him to end his boycott of the nuclear talks.
The ministry officials, however, said the talks may well go into a third day, if necessary, as the sides have a number of issues to resolve, such as how the former president would travel.
They said the first day of the open-ended talks closed on Tuesday after the sides only "exchanged their position" on the former president's planned trip.
Before departing from Seoul on Monday, Jeong Se-hyun, the country's chief delegate to the meeting in North Korea's Mount Geumgang, said the former president "has repeatedly expressed his wish to travel via train and continues to do so."
The countries have agreed to conduct test runs for the first time on two cross-border railways on May 25, but officials say the actual opening of the railways, reconnected late last year, still has a long way to go, as the North's military has opposed the opening.
General-level officials from the Koreas were also holding talks at the truce village inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) from Tuesday to discuss tension-easing measures, including ways to guarantee the safety of people using the cross-border railways when and if they open.
The first day of the high-level military talks also ended without any progress, according to officials at the Defense Ministry.
Pyongyang has agreed to give up its nuclear ambitions in return for economic and diplomatic benefits, but it has been staying away from the nuclear disarmament talks since November.
The nuclear dispute erupted in late 2002 when Washington accused Pyongyang of running a clandestine nuclear arms program in violation of a 1994 agreement in which the communist state agreed to freeze all of its nuclear activities.
The talks are also attended by South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States.
(Yonhap News Agency)
Koreas resume talks on former president's visit to Pyongyang |
