S. Korea urges Kim to commit

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea urged North Korea to commit to pledges made by leader Kim Jong Il to bridge their divided peninsula as the sides opened high-level reconciliation talks Wednesday.

South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, head of Seoul’s delegation, said the delegates had a “productive and constructive discussion” at opening meetings where he proposed that the two sides elaborate on pledges made by Kim when he met with Chung last week in the North’s capital.

“I anticipate a productive agreement will be reached at the talks,” Chung said at the end of the opening session.

The head of the North’s delegation, chief Cabinet counselor Kwon Ho Ung, said the sides should “have in mind the mutual interest of the Korean peoples.”

The meeting comes despite Pyongyang’s failure so far to return to six-party nuclear disarmament negotiations.

Although South Korea is expected to raise the international standoff over the North’s nuclear weapons program, the North is likely to focus on aid for its impoverished economy and maintain its insistence that the nuclear issue can only be resolved with the United States.

The talks that run through Friday are aimed at improving ties and elaborating on agreements made during the surprise meeting in Pyongyang last week between Kim and Chung.

The North Korean delegation’s visit got off to a rocky start Tuesday when protesters displayed banners condemning the communist country’s leader.

As the North Korean delegates were being driven from the airport to the hotel where the talks were scheduled, vehicles adorned with posters calling for Kim to be punished and displaying him tied in ropes drove close to their motorcade, one of the protesters said at a police station where he was taken for questioning along with two other activists.