North and South Korean prime ministers start first talks in 15 years

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The prime ministers of North and South Korea met Wednesday for the first time in 15 years, hoping to extend the detente fostered by the second-ever summit of their leaders last month with new South Korean investment in the impoverished North. North Korean Prime Minister Kim Yong Il said after arriving in Seoul on a direct flight from Pyongyang that he thought the three days of talks would "go well in a warm atmosphere" based on his welcome. The two sides last held prime ministerial talks in 1992 that were suspended amid the first crisis over the North's nuclear weapons program. This week's talks are aimed at fleshing out an agreement that Roh and the North Korean leader signed at their October summit in Pyongyang - only the second such meeting since the Korean peninsula was divided more than half a century ago. That accord calls for greater peace and economic cooperation across the world's most heavily fortified border.