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N.Korean communists on rare visit to South's leader

Posted on: Tuesday, 16 August 2005, 22:09 CDT

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean officials will hold a rare meeting with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on Wednesday, rounding off joint celebrations of their liberation anniversary, where talk of Pyongyang's nuclear program has been avoided.

Senior communist party official Kim Ki-nam and another party official Rim Tong-ok will be the highest-ranking North Koreans to visit the presidential office in more than a decade, an official from South Korea's Unification Ministry said.

Kim, who is also a vice chairman of the North's agency that handles affairs with the South, is leading a delegation of 182 communists, scholars and workers to celebrations in the South to mark the 60th anniversary of liberation from Japanese rule.

"A visit by North Koreans to the presidential Blue House itself is rare," a Unification Ministry official said, adding past visits to the presidential office have been by lower ranking North Korean officials.

During their four-day visit, Kim also held an unprecedented meeting with South Korean parliamentarians but skirted talks on Pyongyang's pursuit of nuclear weapons and international efforts to stop it.

The meetings come during a recess in multilateral talks aimed at persuading North Korea to end its nuclear weapons programs in exchange for security guarantees and economic aid.

Kim also paid respects at the national cemetery for South Korean soldiers who perished in the Korean War.

The two Koreas are technically at war under a truce that ended the 1950-53 war, but have forged closer ties since the meeting of their leaders five years ago and in particular in recent months.

Source: REUTERS

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