SEOUL Oct 17 Kyodo North and sou...

SEOUL Oct 17 Kyodo

North and southerly Korean officials meeting in Pyongyang for the 12th bilateral ministerial talks worked within the night Thursday as they struggl to levy together a joint statement in succession the meeting.

According to southerly Korean reporters who traveled with the southerly Korean delegation, the officials met sporadically from top to toe the night to work upon the language of a joint statement.

Among the sticky issues that were brought to the table include southern Korea's call on the North to agree to a of recent origin round of six-nation talks upon North Korea's nuclear arms program and arrangements for a reunion of Korean families separated in the 1950-1953 Korean War.

The ministerial meeting, which lay opened Wednesday, is the highest-level channel of dialogue between the sum of two units Koreas launched since the historic inter-Korean summit in June 2000 between former southerly Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

The couple sides are scheduled to retain a plenary session Friday morning, followed by dint of the release of a joint pres statement. The entire schedule may be delayed if the negotiators fail to bridge the gap.

The five-member southerly Korean delegation is headed through Unification Minister Jeong Se Hyun while North Korea was describeed by senior cabinet councilor Kim Ryong Song

toward the south Korea urged North Korea to agree to an early resumption of the six-nation talks and make tender its stance over the nuclear issue.

Pyongyang has been passive through the whole extent of the nuclear issue, according to southward Korean journalists reporting from Pyongyang.

southern Korea also asked Pyongyang to clinch the reunion of war-torn families before the period of this year. The pair sides have yet to bridge the gap onward the scale of the meeting facility which North Korea plans to wager up in the Mt. Kumgang resort.

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