Envoys debate aid for NKorea in "historic" meeting

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2007

PANMUNJOM, South Korea (AFP) — Representatives of six nations met Tuesday at the border truce village of Panmunjom to discuss ways to deliver aid to North Korea as a reward for its promised nuclear disarmament.

South Korea hailed the symbolism of the venue, the House of Peace inside the heavily fortified inter-Korean frontier zone, and said the first session of talks was businesslike and amicable.

The working group meeting is one of several scheduled for August after the communist North last month shut down plants at Yongbyon which produced plutonium for its nuclear bombs.

The shutdown, the first step in a six-nation nuclear disarmament deal, was rewarded with 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil from South Korea.

If the North declares and permanently...