“Agendas for the high-level talks will be pending issues in connection with the improvement of inter-Korean relations”, the South’s unification ministry stated.
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Agreement on the dialogue was reached at working-level talks held in the border truce village of Panmunjom on Thursday. However, North Korea canceled the summit a day before as it felt affronted by South Korea’s nomination of a vice minister as its chief delegate.
The tours, a source of income for Pyongyang, were suspended by Seoul in 2008 after a female tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier.
There is no guarantee of the December talks’ success, however.
A number of Chinese fishermen are also arrested every year for illegally fishing in South Korea’s western and southern waters, often leading to violent clashes with the South Korean coast guard.
Agreed in April after more than four years of negotiation, the accord would take effect from 6:00pm (0900 GMT) with an exchange of diplomatic notes, Seoul’s foreign ministry said.
The end of Kim’s presidency was clouded by the Asian financial crisis, still known in South Korea as the International Monetary Fund crisis because of the massive bail-out negotiated with the world lender.
High on the list of any talks are reunions for divided families like those of South Korean Kwon O-hui (L) and her North Korean relative Ri Han-sik, pictured above at the Mount Kumgang resort, October 22, 2015.
Report: The two Koreas will hold vice-ministerial talks in the border city of Gaeseong in the North next month.
Thousands of mourners gathered Thursday at the lawn outside South Korea’s parliament to bid farewell to former President Kim Young-sam, whose landmark 1992 election victory ended decades of military rule and ushered in a series of reforms.
The two Koreas have held two summits in the past, one in 2000 and the second in 2007.
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The agreement also came as discussions were under way for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to visit North Korea.
