N., S. Korea to prepare Thursday for resumption of ministerial talks

SEOUL, Feb. 14 Kyodo

North and South Korea will hold a working-level meeting at the North Korean border city of Kaesong on Thursday to discuss resumption of suspended ministerial talks, South Korea's Unification Ministry said Wednesday.

The inter-Korean ministerial talks, last held in July 2006 in South Korea, have since been suspended due to heightened tensions in the wake of North Korea's missile launchings and its first-ever nuclear test.

The ministerial talks between the two Koreas have been the highest channel of dialogue since the landmark inter-Korean summit in June 2000 in Pyongyang between then South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

The agreement to hold preparatory talks Thursday follows an agreement reached in Beijing on Tuesday among participants in the six-party talks aimed at curbing North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

The six countries -- the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia -- agreed that Pyongyang would shut down its nuclear facilities in return for fuel oil and humanitarian aid as initial steps to dismantling its nuclear weapons program.

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