N.Korea calls for 2000 summit celebration

North and South Korea have resumed senior-level peace talks, with Pyongyang suggesting they hold a joint celebration of their historic 2000 summit.

North Korea has suggested during high-level talks the two Koreas hold a joint celebration of the anniversary of a historic 2000 inter-Korean summit this month in the South, an official in Seoul says.

The meeting on Friday in the border village of Panmunjom in the demilitarised zone that separates North and South Korea is the latest in a flurry of diplomatic activity intended to salvage a thaw in relations with the isolated North.

North Korea had called off a planned meeting with the South last month in protest against US-South Korean air combat drills before South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un revived it during a surprise second summit on Saturday.

The meeting was led by South Korea's Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon and Ri Son Gwon, chairman of the North's committee for the peaceful reunification of the country.

Both sides discussed ways to follow up on the agreement reached during the first summit between Kim and Moon in April that included working-level military, sports and forest co-operation, a unification ministry official told reporters.

The North suggested officials, politicians and private sector members from both sides should take part in the joint celebration of the first-ever inter-Korean summit, the official said.

The South called for a swift launch of a joint liaison office in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, where the two Koreas operated a factory park together until its closure in 2016.

North Korea agreed but said it needed some repair work because the facilities had been unused, the official said.


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Published 1 June 2018 2:06pm
Source: AAP


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