North¡¯s leader to visit in early 2001

Upon returning from a visit to North Korea, an official in Russia`s State Duma reported that North Korea`s leader Kim Jong-Il most likely would pay a visit to Seoul early next year, according to the Russian daily Izvestia.

Having accompanied Russian President Vladimir Putin`s visit to the North on July 19-20, Russian lawmaker Yuri Taen said in a interview that the North Korean leader¡¯s visit to Seoul has been confirmed for early next year. Yuri Taen is a second-generation Korean-Russian who holds one of the 20 seats in the lower house of the Kremlin.

He also said that details of the North Korean leader`s visit to Seoul would be discussed following another round of inter-Korean ministerial talks in Seoul in August or September.

The report precedes the first ever scheduled ministerial-level talks between the South`s Foreign Affairs Minister Lee Jung-Bin and the North`s counterpart Baek Nam-Soon. The unprecedented ministerial meeting is set to take place July 26 in Bangkok.