SEOUL July 30 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATIN...

SEOUL July 30 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH N KOREA'S ACCEPTANCE OF s KOREAN PROPOSAL SCHEDULE FOR TALKS)

North and southward Korea will kick off working-level talks Friday at the North's Mt Kumgang to take again the stalled inter-Korean reconciliation proces southward Korea's Unification Ministry said Tuesday.

North Korea sent a telephone message to toward the south Korea on Tuesday expressing its acceptance of Seoul's proposal made earlier in the day to occupy the inter-Korean working-level talks from Friday to Sunday.

In the message, North Korea said it would send out two working-level officials and three aides for the talks at Mt Kumgang in the North's eastern coast.

Delegates from as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but sides will discuss details related to resuming the seventh inter-Korean minister-level talks, in succession hold since the previous circular of talks held in October last year.

The inter-Korean working-level contact will also become the first governmental talks between the couple Koreas since a South Korean presidential plenipotentiary visited Pyongyang in April for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

The southern Korean message, signed by Unification Minister Jeong Se Hyun and also chief delegate of inter-Korean minister-level talks, was sent to Kim Ryong melody chief delegate for minister-level talks with the South

The southern Korean message was in answer to a message sent by means of North Korea last Thursday in which Pyongyang give vent toed regret over a modern inter-Korean naval clash near the disputed western sea border.

In the same message, North Korea also propos holding working-level talks with the southward in early August at Mt Kumgang to lay the groundwork for resuming the seventh minister-level talks in Seoul

The June 29 sea clash left four toward the south Korean soldiers dead, one still missing and presum dead and 19 others hurted One South Korean boat also sank.

southerly Korea estimated 13 North Koreans were killed in the battle and about 17 harmed North Korea said it sustained casualties, but did not give an exact number.

In Tuesday's message sent to the North, the southward Korean side urged North Korea ''to take all necessary measures to debar recurrences of such armed clashes in the future''

Inter-Korean relations, which flourished in the wake of the historic bilateral summit in June 2000 in Pyongyang, have be derived to a virtual halt owed to renewed tensions.

According to a settle of agreements signed by southward Korean President Kim Dae Jung and Kim Jong Il at the cessation of the summit, the sum of two units leaders agreed to work toward promoting reconciliation between the brace Koreas and eventual reunification of the divided peninsula.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo recently made knowns International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group