Seoul denies contact with N.K. official

The South Korean government denied a news report yesterday that it secretly held a meeting with a North Korean official in Gaeseong last week to discuss the agenda for future high-level talks.

"The news report that the Koreas held an official meeting in Gaeseong around Nov. 7 is not true," Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said.

An anonymous source was quoted as saying by Yonhap News that a high-ranking Unification Ministry official met with a North Korean representative in the North`s border town last weekend.



The two are believed to have exchanged views on putting the North Korean nuclear issue on the table at prospective high-level talks and measures to better guarantee the safety of South Koreans in regard to a possible resumption of tours to the North, according to Yonhap.

Seoul is currently considering holding working-level talks with Pyongyang on ways to ensure the safety of South Korean visitors to the North.

Expectations for an inter-Korean high-profile dialogue have risen with bilateral talks between the United States and North Korea near at hand.

After Kim Yang-gon, North Korea`s top point man on the South, was seen in Beijing airport last month, there were speculations that the two Koreas had a behind-the-scenes meeting in Singapore to fine-tune conditions for an inter-Korean summit.

Kim, chief of the North`s United Front Department, an intelligence agency under the North`s Workers` Party, had suggested the summit when he met with President Lee Myung-bak in August after attending the funeral of former president Kim Dae-jung.

The South Korean official Kim met last month in Singapore was Labor Minister Lim Tae-hee, Japanese broadcaster NHK said yesterday citing a South Korean government source. Kim reportedly refused South Korea`s proposal to hold the summit in Seoul.

(sophie@heraldm.com)







By Kim So-hyun