S.Korea Accepts DPRK's Proposal for Ministerial Meeting

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, January 15, 2003

S.Korea Accepts DPRK's Proposal for Ministerial Meeting

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South Korea accepted on Wednesday a proposal of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to hold the Ninth Inter-Korean Ministerial Meeting in Seoul on Jan. 21-24, said the South Korean Unification Ministry.

South Korea will take advantage of the talks to discuss with the DPRK the nuclear issue, according to a news release of the Unification Ministry, whose top official will lead the South Korean delegation to the meeting.

The meeting will be the first formal contact between the two parts on the Korean Peninsula since the DPRK declared its withdrawal from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on Jan.10.

South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun confirmed that Kim Ryong-song, a senior cabinet member of the DPRK, is expected to head the DPRK delegation, the release said.

The high-level meeting came amid a series of diplomatic effortslaunched by South Korea and its allies of the United States and Japan, along with China, Russia, the European Union and Australia,to ease the nuclear standoff.

The DPRK's recent moves to unfreeze its nuclear facilities and withdraw from the NPT are due to be high on the agenda of the talks.

The previous meeting of this kind was held last October in Pyongyang. The First Inter-Korean Ministerial Meeting was held in July 2000, which was designed to fulfill the South-North Joint Declaration signed by South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and the DPRK top leader Kim Sung Il in June 2000 in Pyongyang.

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