SKorean unification minister meets NKorean counterpart

“Now that we meet here,I’m going to raise inter-Korean issues,” Hyun told journalists before he entered talks with Kim Yang-Gon,a top Pyongyang official in charge of inter-Korean ties.

The North’s high-level delegation arrived yesterday to pay tribute to Kim Dae-Jung,who died Tuesday aged 85. He held the first-ever inter-Korean summit in 2000,during his 1998-2003 presidency.

The rare meeting raised hopes for a breakthrough amid tension on the Korean peninsula,which rose over the North’s second nuclear explosion three months earlier that sparked international sanctions.

Chung Dong-Young,a former unification minister,urged the government to seize the opportunity to mend inter-Korean ties,which have soured since conservative President Lee Myung-Bak took power in February 2008.

“Even after his death,President Kim Dae-Jung is laying a bridge over troubled inter-Korean ties,” Chung said. “I hope the South Korean government can use this opportunity to mend the South-North relationship.”