South Korean president calls for progress with North Koreans on nuclear issue
(AP)
Updated: 2005-08-17 15:36

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun told a visiting North Korean delegation Wednesday that the two countries should work together to resolve the issue of the North's nuclear development, AP reported.

Roh made the comments ahead of a lunch at the presidential Blue House with the delegation, which was wrapping up a visit to South Korea for joint celebrations of the peninsula's liberation from Japanese rule.

"President Roh in particular emphasized that the North and South should make efforts together to make actual progress for the resolution of the nuclear issue in the fourth round of six-party talks to resume at the end of August," said Blue House spokesman Kim Man-soo.

The latest round of talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear ambitions is in recess after the six negotiating countries failed to agree earlier this month. The North insists it should still have the right to "peaceful" nuclear activities if it gives up its weapons, but Washington wants the nation to be nuclear-free.

The talks _ among South Korea, North Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia _ are to resume the week of August 29 in Beijing.

South Korea has continued its engagement with the North despite the international standoff over the latter's nuclear weapons program.

The two are separated by the world's most heavily armed border and remain technically at war since the 1953 cease-fire that halted the Korean War. No peace treaty has ever been signed.

Led by Kim Ki Nam, vice chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, the North Korean delegation on Sunday visited South Korea's main cemetery honoring dead from the Korean War _ the first-ever such visit by officials from the North.

The group was scheduled to head back to Pyongyang later Wednesday.

Roh also told the visitors before the lunch that he felt the joint celebrations marked a new stage in relations on the Korean Peninsula, a joint pool report said.

"In particular, it was a great thing that you visited the National Cemetery. That will become the foundation on which good things will continue to happen in the future," Roh said, according to the pool report.

Roh and his guests dined on Chinese food, including shark's fin and steamed swallow's nest, according to the pool report.

Kim Ki Nam delivered regards to Roh from Kim Jong Il, and thanked him for sending food and fertilizers to the North, according to the report. Roh also passed on his greetings to Kim Jong Il, Blue House spokesman Kim said.

On Tuesday, the delegates made the first visit by North Koreans to the parliament in Seoul, the National Assembly.

Kim One-ki, the National Assembly's speaker, proposed a meeting between parliamentary speakers from the two Koreas in New York next month, said Kim Key-man, senior press secretary to the speaker, adding that the idea was met with a positive response.

Kim One-ki's counterpart is Choe Thae Bok, chairman of North Korea's legislature, the Supreme People's Assembly. If it goes ahead, the meeting would take place on the sidelines of the World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments scheduled for September 7-8 at the United Nations.

During the Liberation Day celebrations on Monday, a video-link between the two Koreas _ the first of its kind _ allowed 40 families separated by the border to reunite with relatives. The men's and women's soccer teams from the two Koreas have also played exhibition matches, splitting the results: the North's women won 2-0, while the South's men prevailed 3-0.

The North Koreans also Tuesday visited former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who was hospitalized last week with bacterial pneumonia, and invited him to return to Pyongyang. Kim's unprecedented summit in June 2000 with North Korean leader Kim paved the way to reconciliation between the Koreas.