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ROK team heads to DPRK for talks

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-14 10:40

SEOUL: A three-member Republic of Korea (ROK) delegation departed here Wednesday morning to Kaesong, a border city in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), for a inter-governmental meeting on river flood prevention.

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Kim Nam-sik, the head of the delegation, and also a senior official in charge of inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation at the Unification Ministry, told media that they would make utmost efforts to obtain good results in the talks, especially on the Imjin River incident.

However, he said currently "it is not appropriate" to speculate any concrete results.

Six ROK citizens, including one child, were killed on September 6 morning after swept away by a huge wave in the Imjin River running through ROK western region, which originates in the DPRK. The sudden flood was believed to have been caused by the discharge of water from a dam in the DPRK.

Although ROK asked for an apology for the unannounced discharge, the DPRK kept saying it was forced to open the floodgates to lower the water level, which Seoul did not consider "sufficient."

The Seoul side on Monday put forward the proposal for holding talks with the DPRK on preventing river flooding, and Pyongyang accepted it in the following day.

The meeting will be the first inter-governmental talks between the ROK and the DPRK since earlier July, when the two sides wrapped up the third round of talks on Kaesong industrial park issues without making any breakthrough.