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ROK president meets DPRK delegation: Yonhap

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-23 09:02

Hyun In-Taek (R), Unification Minister of the Republic of Korea (ROK), and Kim Yang Gon, Department Director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) pose before their meeting at a hotel in Seoul August 22, 2009. Senior DPRK officials sent by leader Kim Jong-il arrived in the South on Friday to mourn former President Kim Dae-jung in a move that may signal a warming of ties between the rival states.[Agencies]

SEOUL: The Republic of Korea (ROK) president met a high-level delegation from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Sunday amid signs of warming ties on the divided peninsula.

Relations between the countries have been largely frozen since conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office in February last year with a tougher line on the DPRK amid the international standoff over its nuclear ambitions. Lee has not held talks with DPRK officials since he became president.

However, there have been increasing signs of warming ties between the rival countries this month with the DPRK releasing a detained ROK worker, and its announcement that it would allow the resumption of some joint projects.

The DPRK also dispatched the delegation of senior officials to pay respects after the death of former ROK President Kim Dae-jung.

On Sunday, Lee held talks with the DPRK delegation at his office, said a presidential Blue House official who spoke on condition of anonymity citing department policy.

The official didn't provide further details.

Yonhap news agency reported Saturday, without citing a source, that the DPRK delegation were expected to deliver a message from leader Kim Jong Il and outline Pyongyang's plan to release four ROK fishermen seized in July. They would also convey the DPRK's position on resuming official dialogue.

The visit to Seoul by six DPRK officials to pay their respects following the death of former President Kim Dae-jung has provided a rare opportunity for dialogue. Kim was widely admired by Pyongyang for his efforts to reconcile the two nations when he served as president from 1998 to 2003.

The DPRK regularly blasts Lee as a "traitor" and "human scum" and accuses the ROK of conniving with the United States to attack it with nuclear weapons. But Pyongyang has recently offered a series of olive branches to Seoul in an apparently concerted effort to improve relations.

Pyongyang on August 13 released a ROK worker at a jointly operated industrial complex in the DPRK who had been held for months amid allegations he denounced the Pyongyang government. Days later the DPRK also promised to hold more inter-Korean family reunions, restart suspended tours for the ROK people to the DPRK and "energize" a troubled joint industrial project.

The DPRK's leader Kim Jong-il held talks with a leading ROK businesswoman and expressed a willingness for better relations with Seoul. That came on the heels of his talks with former US President Bill Clinton and the release of two American reporters who had been convicted of illegally entering the country.

Paik Hak-soon, an analyst at the Sejong Institute, a security think tank near Seoul, said Sunday's meeting would help mend fences between the the ROK and the DPRK.

"South Korea (ROK) should not miss the last opportunity made by former President Kim Dae-jung's death," he said, referring to the fact that the DPRK delegation would not have visited Seoul had it not been for the passing of the former leader who was respected on both sides of the border.

Paik said the meeting "will open a floodgate of improvements in inter-Korean relations" and that Seoul should not reject the DPRK's conciliatory gestures.

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