S.Korean, DPRK party leaders to meet in Pyongyang

Leaders of South Korea's Democratic Labor Party and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s Social Democratic Party may be able to meet in Pyongyang in July for what will be the first meeting between the political parties of the two countries, officials in Seoul said Friday.

"The two parties agreed to work hard to have our leaders visit Pyongyang and to make the leadership meeting happen," Lee Jeong-mi,the labor party official who just came back from Mount Keumgang said in a telephone interview.

Working-level officials of the two parties met at the scenic resort from Tuesday through Thursday to arrange the July meeting.

The South Korean party received permission from the Ministry of Unification last year for contact with its DPRK counterpart, and the two parties are working out the details of the visit, she said.

Chairwoman Kim Hey-kyong plans to meet Kim Yong-dae, head of the DPRK party, and Choi Tae-bok, chairman of the DPRK's Supreme People's Assembly, to promote parliamentary exchanges and cooperation of the two governments, Lee said.

If held, the meeting will be the first between political parties of the two sides since the Korean Peninsula was divided over a half century ago.

The working-level officials will meet again between June 14 and17 in Pyongyang, when a festival will take place in commemoration of the summit meeting between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and DPRK leader Kim Jong Il in 2000.

The two parties also agreed to hold joint events to block Japan's moves to glorify its wartime past and to reassert Korea's sovereignty over Dokdo islets, such as an exhibition of stamps featuring the scenery of Dokdo.

The two parties had issued a joint statement in Seoul and Pyongyang last week, criticizing Japan's claims to Dokdo and its history distortion.

Source: Xinhua