Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 21, 2003
Inter-Korean Ministerial Talks Set for April 27-29
The DPRK and South Korea will hold ministerial talks April 27-29 in Pyongyang, after the South accepted the schedule put forward by the DPRK on Saturday, South Korea's Unification Ministry said Monday.
The DPRK and South Korea will hold ministerial talks April 27-29 in Pyongyang, after the South accepted the schedule put forward by the DPRK on Saturday, South Korea's Unification Ministry said Monday.
South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se Hyun, who will be South Korea's chief delegate to the delayed 10th ministerial talks, sent his government's acceptance of the proposed talks in a telephone message earlier Monday to Kim Ryong Song, a DPRK cabinet councilor and chief delegate to the talks.
The ministerial talks have become the highest channel through which the two Koreas have discussed reconciliation and bilateral economic cooperation since the 2000 inter-Korean summit between DPRK leader Kim Jong Il and then South Korean President Kim Dae Jung.
The DPRK canceled ministerial talks that had been set for April 7-10 and two other working-level talks with the South in March on grounds that the South had heightened its security alert in the wake of the U.S.-led military campaign against Iraq.
The upcoming talks between ministers of the two Koreas are expected to be a weathervane of inter-Korean relations under new South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun as they mark the first high- level inter-Korean meeting since Roh took office in February.
The scheduled inter-Korean talks will draw keen attention as they are to be held shortly after trilateral talks among the United States, the DPRK and China to be held as early as this week in Beijing to discuss the North Korea nuclear issue.