|
N Korea leader in surprise meeting
 North Korean leader Kim Jong Il plans to meet Friday with South Korea's unification minister, a ministry spokesman said. A South Korean delegation has been visiting North Korea to celebrate the five-year anniversary of a historic joint summit between both nations. The delegation was to return Friday but decided to stay when Kim agreed to meet them. The North Korean leader rarely meets officials from other countries.The reclusive Kim last talked with a top South Korean official in the North's capital in April 2002, The Associated Press reports. Before that, a June 15, 2000 meeting between Kim and then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung resulted in a declaration by the two leaders that is credited with helping to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The current South Korean delegation is led by Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, who is to brief Kim on concerns by other countries about North Korea's nuclear program. On Thursday evening, Chung met the North's No. 2 leader, Kim Yong Nam, who said his country could treat the United States as a friendly nation if Washington acknowledges its regime. "If the United States recognizes North Korea's system, North Korea too will treat them as an ally," Kim Yong Nam told Chung, according to the Unification Ministry. Posted by: Fred 2005-06-17 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=121847 |