Seoul (AsiaNews/Agencies) – North Korea, which for the past year has postponed the resumption of six-nation talks about its nucleur ambitions, has proposed holding a bilateral meeting with South Korea next week. This was revealed today by the official North Korean news bureau, Korean Central News Agency. Kwon Houng, head of the north's delegation to the inter-Korean talks, sent a telegram to his South Korean counterpart Chung Dong-young, Unification Minister, offering to fix a meeting on 16 and 17 May in Kaesong, a city on the border between the two Koreas.

The last meeting held in Kaesong between officials of the two parties dates back to April; it dealt with aid for the north to fight the bird flu epidemic. Officials in Seoul have not yet confirmed whether the government will accept the proposal and what issues would be dealt with at the meeting.

Pyongang left the six-nation talks after the third round of meetings (June 2004); it had already accepted to participate in a fourth round of talks, scheduled for September 2004, but not yet held. Participating in the talks on nucleur disarmament apart from the two Koreas are the United States, Japan, and Russia. China is the mediator. Lee Duk Haeng, official within the Unification Ministry, said the north is seeking in the south a "sort of mediator in increasingly tense relations with the US". He added that in all probability the South Korean delegate to the talks would be Rhee Bong Jo, unification vice-minister.

On 10 February 2005, the North Korean regime officially confirmed that it has an atomic weapons arsenal at its disposal and it intends to make it more powerful.

• NORTH
• KOREA
• SOUTH
• KOREA
• NUCLEAR
• SIX
• TALKS
• UNIFICATION
• MEETING