North and South Korea agreed yesterday to hold ministerial talks in Seoul next week, a new bid to resume halting efforts at reconciliation in tandem with fresh US and Japanese dialogue with the communist North.
South Korea's Unification Ministry said in a statement, issued after officials from the rival states met for the first time in four months, that Pyongyang had reiterated its regret over a deadly sea battle and agreed to Cabinet-level talks from Aug. 12 to Aug. 14 to discuss economic and family exchanges.
North Korea also agreed to send a team to the Asian Games to be held in South Korea's second-largest city, Pusan, from Sept. 29 to Oct. 14, the statement said. The two neighbors confirmed plans to play friendly soccer matches in Seoul next month.
"The talks provided the occasion to get the inter-Korean relations back on track by setting the date and the agenda for the ministerial talks," the ministry said.
The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency said the meeting was important in "improving the overall inter-Korean ties on the track of reconciliation, cooperation and reunification."
The talks later this month will take place as the impoverished North tries to improve ties with the US and Japan and to jumpstart a failing economy that has seen tens of thousands of deaths from famine and thousands of refugees fleeing to China.
On a major sticking point -- the June naval clash that killed 18 sailors on both sides and strained relations -- the statement said North Korea confirmed its "regret" and pledged to prevent any such future incidents.
South Korea had opened the meetings in the North's Mount Kumgang resort on Saturday demanding an apology and the punishment for those responsible for the North Korean attack.
Despite the lack of an apology, the Unification Ministry said the North had taken a more productive stance than in past talks.
"North Korea's attitude was active at the negotiating table," the ministry said. "They seemed to focus on real benefits and implementation rather than just argument and propaganda."
It said next week's ministerial meetings in Seoul would discuss plans to resume bilateral military talks.
"We will be able to discuss with the North ways to ease military tension and build trust at military talks," it added.
The ministers will pick up where the two sides left off last November in attempting to restart stalled goodwill projects.
"The talks will speed up major inter-Korean projects such as linking the railway and building an industrial complex in Kae-song," the ministry said.
More than a million South Koreans have relatives in the North they have not seen or talked to since the 1950-53 Korean War, which also cut the peninsula's railway and road links.
Yesterday's statement appears to breathe fresh life into South Korean President Kim Dae-jung's "Sunshine Policy" of constructive engagement with the North after five decades of confrontation.
Kim's policy had suffered countless setbacks since a June 2000 North-South summit raised reconciliation hopes. Many of the hitches stemmed from North Korean tensions with the US since George W. Bush came to office early last year.
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