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Lee Myung-bak - Source: ONE News -
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North Korean envoys in Seoul to mourn the death of a former
president on Sunday held their first talks with the current leader
since he took office about 18 months ago and delivered a message
from Kim Jong-il.
The meeting lasted about 30 minutes, officials said. It is the
latest sign that the impoverished North is re-emerging from its
shell after a nuclear test in May and missile launches that were
met with tightened UN sanctions and further isolation.
The South's presidential Blue House would not disclose the content
of the message, which was likely the first formal communication
between the North's Kim and South Korean President Lee Myyung-bak
since the latter came to office vowing to take a tougher line with
his country's prickly communist neighbour.
North Korea had all but cut ties with Lee, calling him a "traitor
to the state" in anger at his government's policies of ending
unconditional aid and linking handouts to Pyongyang's nuclear
disarmament.
"President Lee said, if South and North Korea solve problems
through dialogue and in a sincere manner, there is nothing we
cannot resolve," presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said in a
televised briefing.
"The North delegation expressed its gratitude for allowing the
meeting and suggests both sides can cooperate and resolve
(problems)," the spokesman said of the meeting at the Blue
House.
Economy in trouble
The delegation arrived on Friday in what was the North's first
dispatch of envoys to the South in nearly two years. They were
expected to leave just before the state funeral for former
President Kim Dae-jung, South Korean officials said.
Kim, awarded the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize for brokering the first
summit between the two Koreas that led to a dramatic warming of
ties between the rival states, died on Tuesday at the age of
85.
If the North repairs ties with the South, which once supplied it
with aid equal to about 5 percent of its estimated $17 billion a
year GDP, the impoverished state could then receive a much needed
boost to its coffers, analysts said.
North Korea's broken economy has been hit hard by the UN sanctions
aimed at cutting off a vital source of foreign currency it derives
from missile and arms sales.
Few believe it is ready to give up nuclear weapons - the one thing
that gives it leverage and the threat of which has won it repeated
concessions in the past.
