Seoul - Seoul has been negotiating with Pyongyang for a meeting between President Kim Dae-jung and Kim Yong-nam, North Koreas nominal head of state, on the sidelines of the United Nations Millennium Summit in New York in September, Foreign Affairs-Trade Minister Lee Joung-binn said yesterday.
Lee revealed this fact during a consultation with a group of senior ruling Millennium Democratic Party officials at its Yoido headquarters.
"During the ASEAN Regional Forum meeting in Bangkok, my northern counterpart Paek Nam-sun and I discussed the meeting of President Kim Dae-jung and Kim Yong-nam, chairman of the presidium of North Korea s Supreme Peoples Assembly, on the occasion of both leaders attending the U.N. Millennium Summit," Lee said.
Lee added that South and North Korean missions to the United Nations are discussiing the issue in detail.
Lee also said that he and Paek agreed in principle to continue to meet and consult on inter-Korean and international affairs on the sidelines of various international meetings.
"We agreed to meet again during the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September, " he said.
Lee went on to say that he and the North Korean foreign minister also shared the view that South and North Korea need to establish a system of cooperation between their missions abroad.
Furthermore, discussions at the first-ever inter-Korean foreign ministers meeting in Bangkok covered such topics as North Korea s improvement of ties with the United States and Japan, Pyongyangs joining of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and North Korea s participation in some projects of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), as well as the Norths missile issue.