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North, South Korean Meet Informally Ahead of Economic Talks

Posted on: Saturday, 9 July 2005, 15:00 CDT

Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap

Seoul, 9 July: Working-level officials of South and North Korea met informally Saturday [9 July] as they prepared to open four-day economic talks in Seoul to discuss ways to further promote cross- border economic projects.

A five-member North Korean delegation, led by Choe Yong-gon, deputy minister of construction and building material industries, arrived at Inchon International Airport outside Seoul aboard a commercial South Korean flight from Beijing in the afternoon.

The 9-12 July talks came amid a flurry of diplomatic efforts to lure North Korea back to the stalled six-way talks over its nuclear arms programme.

China will send Tang Jiaxuan, a state councillor, as a presidential envoy to North Korea next week in an apparent mission to persuade its communist ally to return to the nuclear talks, which have been stalled since June last year.

His trip is scheduled to be preceded by a visit to Beijing by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for talks on ending the nuclear dispute.

Rice reiterated that the United States has no intention of invading or attacking North Korea as she embarked on an Asian swing that will also take her to South Korea, Japan and Thailand.

Optimism has risen since mid-June when the North's leader, Kim Jong-il, said his country would return to the negotiating table, possibly in July, if the US showed sufficient respect towards his country.

After three rounds of six-nation talks ended without significant progress in June last year, North Korea refused to attend further talks, citing Washington's "hostile" policy towards it.

The six countries involved are the two Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia.

The economic talks in Seoul, the 10th since the landmark inter- Korean summit in 2000, are the main channel of dialogue between the two sides on major cross-border economic projects.

In a brief greeting session, Vice Finance and Economy Minister Bahk Byong-won, Seoul's chief delegate, said his country is considering ways to provide aid to the North in coping with recent floods that killed 88 people and left 105 missing.

No formal talks were scheduled for Saturday, but a banquet was hosted by Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, Seoul's point man on North Korea.

In a speech at the banquet, Chung called for implementation of the accords in good faith. So far, the two sides produced a set of accords but some of them still remain in limbo.

Choe Yong-gon, the North's chief delegate, called for further development of inter-Korean economic cooperation, saying the trend "cannot be either halted or overturned".

South Korea has said it is ready to offer vast amounts of economic aid to its impoverished communist neighbour if Pyongyang abandons its nuclear arms programme.

The two sides are scheduled to hold a series of sessions before ending the talks on Tuesday, they said.

During the talks, the two sides are expected to review progress on joint cross-border projects such as transportation links and cooperation in the fisheries sector, South Korean officials said.

The two sides are also expected to discuss North Korea's request for 500,000 tons of rice aid.

During last month's cabinet-level talks, Seoul agreed to provide the North with food aid on humanitarian grounds, with detailed procedures to be fixed in the economic talks.

"The issue of rice loans will be wrapped up in the talks," said Park Heung-ryul, who will serve as a spokesman for the South Korean delegation. "Though nothing is set, it will not be pessimistic."

Separately, a convoy of 80 South Korean trucks was driven into North Korea across the western sector of the border Saturday to deliver 20,000 tons of fertilizer aid.

The overland delivery, part of 150,000 tons of free fertilizer worth 60bn won (58m US dollars) South Korea will give to the North, is scheduled to be wrapped up by 20 July. Seoul will send the remainder by ship.

So far, Seoul has provided 1.75m tons of free fertilizer to the North.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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