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Pyongyang agrees to dialogue with US, family reunions
( 2002-04-07 09:59 ) (7 )

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has reportedly decided to reopen talks with the United States, a South Korean envoy said upon returning from the country.

The news Saturday of a forthcoming resumption of dialogue with Washington came a day after reports that DPRK leader Kim Jong Il had agreed to reunions of some families divided by the Korean War, and to discuss business cooperation with the South.

"Leader Kim Jong-IL has expressed willingness to open dialogue with the United States and will accept a US envoy's visit to the North," Lim Dong-won, South Korea's special presidential envoy, said at a news conference in Seoul.

During his four-day stay in the North, Lim held talks with Kim Jong Il and other top officials of DPRK on stalled inter-Korean dialogue and icy relations between Washington and Pyongyang.

Kim Jong Il said he would accept a proposed visit to DPRK by a special US envoy and would expand civilian exchanges with the United States, Lim said.

Lim said he understood that Donald Gregg, a former US ambassador to South Korea, "either began his visit to the North on Friday or was about to arrive Saturday."

Lim conveyed messages from South Korean President Kim Dae-jung urging DPRK to break out of its isolation and build ties with the outside world.

The envoy said Kim Jong Il responded "positively."

Lim met the North Korean leader late Thursday in the first public contact between the deeply divided neighbors in six months.

It was not immediately clear when the stalled reunions, a source of anguish for thousands of families split for half a century, would restart.

JOINT STATEMENT DUE SOON

"Both sides agreed on the exchanges of separated families and opening inter-Korean economic cooperation talks. They are expected to be included in a joint statement," South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Chong-ro said.

DPRK's official news agency put a positive gloss on the meeting between Lim and Kim Jong Il that followed a day of North invective against the South and the United States.

Lim relayed an appeal from Kim Dae-jung to revive North-South rapprochement and broader talks between the DPRK and the United States and Japan.

"Lim Dong-won relayed President Kim Dae-jung's appeal for peace on the Korean peninsula and discussed with Chairman Kim Jong Il issues of common concern," South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hong-jae told reporters.

He did not say whether Kim responded to the appeal, but the resumption of family reunions would be good news for South Korea, where more than a million elderly people have siblings or parents in the North that they have not seen since the Korean War (1950-1953).

BROKEN, BITTER HISTORY

The two nations were divided in 1945. About 37,000 US troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against the North, a legacy of the Korean War.

Inter-Korean relations warmed after a historic summit between their leaders in 2000, enabling reunions among hundreds of divided families. But that stopped when relations cooled again amid increasing tension between the North and the United States.

In January, the relations further tensioned after Bush's accusation that DPRK was part of "an axis of evil" of countries - along with Iran and Iraq - with ambitions to develop weapons of mass destruction.