North Korea has proposed a resumption of talks with South Korea, Seoul's Yonhap News Agency said today citing a North Korean television broadcast.
In broadcast message to South Korean Unification Minister Mr Lim Dong-won, North Korea's Committee for National Reunification proposed a speedy resumption of talks between South and North Korean officials, Yonhap said.
South Korea's Unification Ministry was still trying to verify the report. "We are trying to see if such a message was broadcast", a ministry spokesman said.
A historic summit between South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang on June 15th, 2000, had raised high hopes among Koreans for reconciliation after decades of enmity since the 1950-53 Korean War.
But 14 months later, relations are at a standstill, with Kim Jong-il holding back on his promised return visit to Seoul in what analysts say is pique at the George Bush administration's decision to put US-North Korean ties on hold.