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S Korean delegation crosses border for talks

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-21 11:54

SEOUL -- A South Korean delegation crossed the land border with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Tuesday morning to participate in an inter-Korean governmental talks amid mounting tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

South Korean officials leave the customs, immigration and quarantine office, about 700 m (0.4 miles) south of the southern limiting line of the demilitarised zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas in Paju, about 55 km (34 miles) north of Seoul, bound for the Kaesong inter-Korean industrial complex in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) April 21, 2009. [Xinhua]

"The delegation has crossed the border," a spokesman of South Korea's Unification Ministry told Xinhua through telephone at 9:00 am local time (0000 GMT).

Kim Young-tak, director general of the Kaesong Industrial Complex Project Bureau under the South Korean Unification Ministry, didn't made any remarks upon his departure for DPRK's border city of Kaesong.

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According to local news channel YTN, the talks will begin at 10:00 am local time (0100 GMT) at Kaesong.

It will be the first time that South Korea and the DPRK hold governmental talks since South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in February last year.

The DPRK side last Thursday offered to hold the talks with South Korea.

Earlier on Monday, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said that Seoul will try to ensure the inter-Korean talks is "helpful for the safety of our citizens and the stable development of the Kaesong industrial complex."

The inter-Korean governmental talks came amid mounting tensions on the Korean Peninsula after the DPRK launched a rocket earlier this month despite warnings by the United States, South Korea and Japan.

Following the UN Security Council adopted a presidential statement over DPRK's rocket launch earlier this week, the DPRK vowed to quit the six-party talks on the nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula and ordered all international nuclear monitors to leave the country.

Another focus of the dialogue is South Korea's participation into the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) as Seoul plans to fully join the PSI while DPRK warned to take stern countermeasures. The South Korean government said last weekend that it will announce whether to join the PSI after Tuesday's inter-Korean talks.