Ministerial Talks to Resume

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Ministerial Talks to Resume

North Korea delivered to Seoul Friday the names of its five-person delegation to the fifth round of inter-Korean ministerial level talks. The talks open Saturday in Seoul - the DPRK delegation is expected to arrive late Saturday afternoon - and are scheduled to continue for four days.

Seoul plans to propose a joint inter-Korean declaration condemning terrorism during the talks. Also high on its agenda is a discussion of when North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il will make his promised reciprocal visit to South Korea.

The Blue House and Unification Ministry see a terrorism statement as important in inducing the United States to drop its designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. That could be a hard sell.

"North Korea seems to have decided to hold onto the talks in order to approach the United States at a strategic level," Choi Jin-uk, director of North Korean research at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said.

"But whether North Korea will accede to Chairman Kim's reciprocal visit is questionable, given that problems in relations between North Korea and the United States are not likely to be easily resolved because of the terrorist incident in the United States," he added.

Other items on the South Korean agenda are the linking of the inter-Korean Kyungui railroad line and the launching of overland tourism at Mount Kumgang in North Korea. Seoul has nearly completed work on its portion of the railroad line; the North has not begun construction to the north.

Seoul also plans to push for progress in developing an industrial park at Kaesong, just north of the demilitarized zone, and the implementation of the four agreements on economic cooperation the two Koreas have signed.

"We will make efforts so the ministerial-level talks that form the core of the implementation of the June 15 inter-Korean Joint Declaration may lead to talks sector-by-sector," said Rhee Bong-jo, the Seoul delegation's spokesman.

Many changes in the delegations of both sides have been made since the last round of talks in March. The North Korean delegation will be led by Kim Yong-song who led the North Korean team during preparatory contacts which led to the June 15, 2000, visit by President Kim Dae-jung to Pyongyang.

Unification Minister Hong Soon-young, who has no prior experience in inter-Korean dialogue, will lead Seoul's delegation.

Included in the North Korean delegation are Jo Song-bal, an ideological theorist and vice-president of the North Korean philosophy association, and Kim Man-gil, an expert in political and military affairs who has been a member of an inter-Korean committee on nuclear regulation.

Sources close to the delegation say Seoul will play its presentations by ear, keying on the North's keynote address and Pyongyang's reaction to its points Seoul wants to stress.



by Lee Young-jong

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