North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has expressed his intention to resume dialogue with the United States and to revive stalled inter-Korean rapprochement, South Korea's special presidential envoy Lim Dong-won said today.
"Kim Jong-il accepted President Kim Dae-jung's proposal that North Korea resume talks with the United States," Mr Lim told a news conference after his return from a three-day trip to Pyongyang.
The United States has sought talks with North Korea without pre-conditions since June, but the wary communist state has rebuffed the offer and is still smarting from being labeled part of an "axis of evil" by President Bush.
This week, North Korea's state media declared Washington, Seoul's main ally, the "most wicked sworn enemy" of Korea.
In Washington, a State Department spokeswoman had no immediate comment, but reiterated the previously stated U.S. position that "we are and have been prepared to meet with the North Koreans at any time and at any place."
Lim, who met Kim Jong-il on Thursday, said Kim had agreed to "fully revive the North-South rapprochement" and resume Korean goodwill and exchange projects the North had halted last year.
The projects include reunions of families divided for five decades, tourism and economic cooperation talks and renewed discussion on opening North-South railroad links, Lim said, adding the two sides would try to revive military consultations.
"Kim Jong-il expressed his wish to visit Seoul and meet Kim Dae-jung again," he said. But no date was set for the Seoul visit to reciprocate the two Kims' June 2000 summit in Pyongyang.