Nearly Agreed on Resumption of North-South Dialogue And Separated Families Reunion

A delegate including the presidential special advisor on diplomacy, security and unification Lim Dong-Won who is visiting North Korea as the special envoy of president Kim Dae-Jung, met with working level North Korean officials on April 4. It is known that they have partially reached an agreement on resumption of dialogue between the North and South Korean authorities and implementation of reciprocal visits of separated families.

Our side is known to have communicated our position that we may consider issues of loan provision of 300 thousand tons of rice and our people’s participation in North Korean Arirang festival through the second economic cooperation promotion committee when the North side accepts the reunion of separate families and resumes the dialogue of North and South.

The North and South held a working level contact till late night between Kim Bo-Hyeon, the 3rd sector director of the National Information Service (NIS), and Kim Wan-Su, vice chairman of the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, adjusting continuously issues including the crisis prevention in the Korean Peninsula and the resumption of North-South dialogue.

It is not yet confirmed till late whether a meeting between the special envoy Lim and the chairman of the defense committee Kim Jong-Il had actually taken place, which has been expected at afternoon. However, our government sources said that it is highly likely the North Korean side transferred South Korean position presented in the meeting of April 3 to chairman Kim.

spear@donga.com