Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=02/02/04

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=NOKOR / SOKOR TALKS PREVIEW - L ONLY

NUMBER=2-312588

BYLINE=AMY BICKERS

DATELINE=TOKYO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

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INTRO: North and South Korea will hold high-level talks in Seoul Tuesday, with the focus expected to be on when Pyongyang will agree to a second round of talks on its nuclear weapons program. As V-O-A's Amy Bickers reports from Tokyo, the two sides will also discuss joint economic and cultural cooperation projects at their meeting - the 13th of its kind.

TEXT: North and South Korea's first ministerial-level meeting of 2004 starts in Seoul Tuesday, with the administration of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun hoping for a breakthrough on the deadlocked North Korean nuclear crisis.

The South Korean delegation, led by Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun, is expected to urge North Korea to return as soon as possible to the six-nation talks. China, Russia, Japan, South Korea and the United States want North Korea to give up all its nuclear ambitions and dismantle its current programs - which violate international agreements.

Woo Seong-ji is a professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul. He expects Mr. Jeong will tell his northern counterparts that inter-Korean relations cannot move forward until the issue is resolved.

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South and North Korea have extended cooperation between the two Koreas. But now the stumbling block is of course the North Korea nuclear issue. This year will be very critical. If we do not resolve the North Korea nuclear problem properly, than the expansion of economic cooperation will be hindered.

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At the last round of Korean cabinet-level talks, in October in Pyongyang, there was no movement toward resolving the nuclear dispute - despite many hours of negotiations.

Pyongyang is calling for a U-S security guarantee and energy aid. But Washington says it will not discuss those issues until the North's nuclear program is verifiably and irreversibly dismantled.

The standoff flared in October 2002 when U-S officials said Pyongyang acknowledged it had a secret nuclear weapons program, in violation of a 1994 agreement with the United States. Since then, North Korea has expelled United Nations nuclear inspectors and has withdrawn from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Other issues to be discussed at the ministerial talks in Seoul are the reconnection of railways across the Korean Peninsula and the building of an industrial complex in North Korea.

The two sides are also expected to set a date for a ninth round of reunions for Korean families separated by the Korean War. The war ended in 1953 with an armistice but no peace treaty.

Since the historic inter-Korean summit of 2000, North and South Korea have embarked on a series of joint projects aimed at peaceful reunification and have held 12 rounds of cabinet-level talks since then. (SIGNED)

NEB/HK/AB/JJ