DATE=4/22/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=KOREA TALKS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-261607
BYLINE=HYUN-SUNG KHANG
DATELINE=SEOUL
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Representatives from North and South Korea
have met to prepare for the first ever summit between
the leaders of their country, due to take place in
June. The South Korean representative raised the
subject of divided family members, with his North
Korean counterpart. But as Hyun-Sung Khang reports
from Seoul, North Korea is likely to have other issues
to place on the agenda.
TEXT: The meeting between the Vice-Ministers from the
two Koreas took place at the
truce village of Panmunjom, located in the
Demilitarized Zone separating the two countries.
Before the meeting, the chief South Korean
representative raised an issue which Seoul considers
one of its top priorities. He appealed
for help in reuniting families separated by the
division of the penninsula in 1945.
His North Korean counterpart responded by saying that
there were many pending issues between the two sides
and added that there needed to be
solutions to more basic issues. The North Korean
delegate did not elaborate, but Pyongyang is likely to
press the subject of Seoul's
anti-Communist National Security law and the US
military presence in South Korea. There are presently
37-thousand U-S troops stationed in the South.
The South Korean delegation said they were entering
the talks with the belief that they were paving the
way for an end to 55 years of division.
The Seoul government is keen to propose economic
cooperation between the two Koreas, peace measures, as
well as the reunion of separated family members.
The North Korean party, accompanied by several dozen
North Korean officials and reporters walked across the
border to meet the delegation from Seoul. The two
sides exchanged pleasantries about the warm spring
weather and rice planting before going behind closed
doors to discuss the forthcoming June meeting between
the South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and the North
Korean leader Kim Jong-Il.
The representatives are thought to have discussed the
agenda, security and other procedural details for the
June summit at a meeting lasting some 80
minutes. The North Korean envoys then asked for a
recess after hearing the South Korean proposals. The
two sides are due to meet again on Thursday.
The June summit will be the first ever meeting between
leaders from the two Koreas, since the peninsula was
divided at the end of the second World War. Five
years later North and South Korea fought a bitter
civil conflict which
ended in 1953. But technically, the two sides have
still been at war since they never signed a peace
treaty. A previous leaders summit planned for 1994 was
abruptly cancelled following the death of the then
North Korean leader, Kim Il Sung. (Signed)
NEB/HSK/PLM
22-Apr-2000 02:54 AM EDT (22-Apr-2000 0654 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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