South Korea to try to convince North back to nuclear talks
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-14 10:32

South Korea and North Korea launched high-level talks Wednesday where Seoul was expected to make a strong push to bring the North back to international talks on its nuclear weapons program.

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, head of the South Korean delegation to the Cabinet-level talks, and his Northern counterpart Kwon Ho Ung were to finalize the agenda for the talks Wednesday morning.

Kwon urged "good results for a noble cause" at the beginning of talks on the southern resort island of Jeju, according to pool reports. The talks _ the 17th such Cabinet-level negotiations between North and South _ last through Friday.

On Tuesday, South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon, Seoul's chief negotiator at the six-nation North Korea nuclear talks, attended a welcoming dinner ahead of the formal talks in a show of South Korea's commitment to bringing back the North to the nuclear negotiations.

"Talking face-to-face is the best method of dialogue," Song told reporters.

Tension has grown since the latest spat between North Korea and the United States over U.S. sanctions imposed for North Korea's alleged illegal activities, including money-laundering and counterfeiting _ allegations the North calls "sheer lies."

Just after the inter-Korean talks, Chung will travel Sunday to Washington where he's expected to relay the North's position and try to bring both sides back to the negotiating table.

North Korea said last week it won't return to the nuclear talks until Washington lifts the sanctions, but the United States insists the issue is a matter of law unrelated to the nuclear talks.

The latest round of talks in Beijing last month ended without progress on implementing a September agreement where the North agreed to give up its nuclear programs in exchange for aid and security guarantees.

The latest nuclear crisis erupted in late 2002 when U.S. officials said the North violated an earlier agreement by admitting to a secret uranium-enrichment program. The North has since denied the U.S. allegation, but in February announced it has built plutonium-based nuclear weapons.

Other topics on the agenda at the inter-Korean talks include the issue of South Korean abductees and prisoners of war still held in North Korea, along with establishing a permanent peace agreement on the peninsula.

The two Koreas are still technically at war following the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, although exchanges between the two neighbors have increased since a historic summit of their leaders in 2000.