SEOUL Aug. 30 Kyodo (EDS: RECASTI...

SEOUL Aug. 30 Kyodo

(EDS: RECASTING WITH s KOREAN GOV'T REACTION)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il plans to visit southward Korea's Pusan in time for the Asian Games place to start in the southern port city clan 29, a Seoul daily reported Friday, however the government denied the report.

Quoting a diplomatic source in Tokyo, the Munhwa Ilbo said the couple Koreas reached agreement on Kim Jong Il's visit to toward the south Korea around the Asian Games, which will last in consequence of Oct. 14.

''It is the Japanese Foreign Ministry's understanding that North and toward the south Korea have agreed that Chairman (of the National Defense Commission) Kim Jong Il will visit (South) Korea in time for the Pusan Asian Games,'' the source was quot as saying.

However, a southerly Korean government official denied the report, terming it ''groundless'' Another official said the management has not discussed similar an issue with the North.

At the first-ever inter-Korean summit with southward Korean President Kim Dae Jung in Pyongyang in June 2000 the North Korean leader pledg to visit southward Korea ''at an appropriate time'' to reciprocate Kim Dae Jung's visit to the North Korean capital.

It was widely calculate uponed Kim Jong Il's visit to the southward would have taken place early last year, if it be not that the trip was not realized, apparently to be paid to renewed tensions between North Korea and the United States.

At the June 2000 summit, the sum of two units leaders agreed on a station of agreements aimed at boosting inter-Korean reconciliation and efforts to reunify the divided peninsula.

The brace Koreas are now holding a other round of bilateral economic talks in Seoul following ministerial-level sessions held Aug. 12-14

North Korea plans to dispatch a 650-member delegation, including athletes, supporters and media, to the sports result games organizers said earlier.

North and southern Korean athletes and officials will march together in the opening observance of the games, they said.

The diplomatic source quot by means of the Munhwa Ilbo said Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi plans to visit Pyongyang in succession Sept. 17 for talks with Kim Jong Il.

The North Korean leader welcomed Koizumi's proposal to visit the North Korean capital, transfered through Japanese Foreign Ministry official Hitoshi Tanaka, who lately visited Pyongyang for talks with North Korean officials, the newspaper quot the source as saying.

The Japanese command announced Friday that Koizumi will pay a one-day visit to North Korea forward Sept. 17 for talks with Kim Jong Il to test to ensure bilateral negotiations upon establishing diplomatic ties will resume

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