High-level talks resume Jan. 21

North Korea said yesterday that it wanted to meet with the South on Jan. 21. The inter-Korean talks would be the first official contact between Seoul and Pyeongyang this year, and Seoul pledged to convey its objections to the North's nuclear weapons development program and the international community's concerns about recent Pyeongyang moves. Whether Pyeongyang will be listening is unclear.

Kim Yong-sung, the North Korean cabinet council head and chief delegate to inter-Korean ministerial talks, called South Korea's Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun through the truce village of Panmunjeom to say his delegation wants to come here on Jan. 21-24. South Korea had proposed Monday to hold the talks beginning Tuesday; Seoul accepted the later dates.

"North Korea probably pushed the date for the inter-Korean talks back a week because it wants to observe further U.S. and international moves to handle Pyeongyang's nuclear aspirations," said a South Korean government official involved in the talks.

President Kim Dae-jung and unification, foreign affairs and security ministers will meet today to draft an agenda for the talks that the Blue House said would reflect the agreements at this week's meeting of U.S., Korean and Japanese diplomats on North Korean issues.

Economic cooperation projects will also be on the agenda, including cross-border railroad renovation, an overland tour program to the North's Mount Geumgang and the construction of an industrial complex in Gaeseong in the North. Seoul is also expected to try to resolve conflicts between the North and the United Nations Command on administrative jurisdiction over transportation corridors to be opened inside the Demilitarized Zone.

South Korea has kept dialogue channels with the North alive, despite a somewhat reluctant pledge last month to suspend contacts other than those on humanitarian issues, but the statement after the recent trilateral talks approving of bilateral contacts between Seoul and Tokyo and Pyeongyang has overtaken that pledge. The last ministerial talks were held in Pyeongyang last October, just days after the North admitted to a clandestine uranium enrichment program.

Separately, North-South Red Cross talks are scheduled for Jan. 20-22 at Mount Geumgang.

by Lee Young-jong