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DPRK conveys Kim Jong-il's message to ROK

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-23 10:44

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: A high-level delegation from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has delivered a message from their leader Kim Jong-il to the president of the Republic of Korea (ROK) during a rare meeting Sunday at the presidential Blue House.

President Lee Myung-bak and the DPRK officials discussed inter-Korean cooperation during the half hour meeting, presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said. He said he could not provide details about the contents of Kim's message.

The Blue House meeting — the latest sign of warming ties between the two nations after months of tension — took place just hours before the funeral of Kim Dae-jung, the former ROK president who met with Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang in 2000 for a historic Korean summit.

Related readings:  ROK president meets DPRK delegation: Yonhap  Lee Myung-bak to meet DPRK envoys on Sunday  DPRK envoys hold talks with ROK minister  ROK Unification Minister meets senior DPRK official  DPRK mourns ex-ROK leader, 'signals thaw' in relations  DPRK officials pay respect to Kim Dae-jung  DPRK says to lift border ban: Seoul TV

The late Kim, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to reach out to the DPRK with his "Sunshine Policy" of reconciliation, died Tuesday at the age of 85.

The two Koreas remain in a state of war since their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953, with tanks and troops guarding the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone dividing the two sides.

Kim Dae-jung, who served as president from 1998 to 2003, advocated engaging the nuclear-armed DPRK, and sought to ease reconciliation by plying the nation with aid. At their breakthrough 2000 meeting, he and Kim Jong-il agreed on a series of reconciliation projects that saw a flowering of relations between the rivals.

But ties have been tense since President Lee, a conservative, abandoned the Sunshine Policy when he took office in February 2008 and linked aid to the DPRK's commitment to nuclear disarmament.

However, there have been signs of an easing of tensions on the Korean peninsula in recent weeks.

At the Blue House meeting, the DPRK delegation explained Kim's thoughts on "progress on inter-Korean cooperation," Lee's spokesman said.

Lee, in response, detailed his government's "consistent and firm" policy on the DPRK, and asked them to convey his comments to Kim, the spokesman said. The ROK president also reiterated his push for dialogue, he said.

The spokesman said he could not reveal the contents of the letter because of the sensitivity of the matter.