North Korea's Kim sends message to South's leader

By Kim Yeon-hee

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korean envoys in Seoul to mourn the death of a former president on Sunday held their first talks with the current leader since he took office about 18 months ago and delivered a message from Kim Jong-il.

The meeting lasted about 30 minutes, officials said. It is the latest sign that the impoverished North is re-emerging from its shell after a nuclear test in May and missile launches that were met with tightened U.N. sanctions and further isolation.

The South's presidential Blue House would not disclose the content of the message, which was likely the first formal communication between the North's Kim and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak since the latter came to office vowing to take a tougher line with his country's prickly communist neighbor.

North Korea had all but cut ties with Lee, calling him a "traitor to the state" in anger at his government's policies of ending unconditional aid and linking handouts to Pyongyang's nuclear disarmament.

"President Lee said, if South and North Korea solve problems through dialogue and in a sincere manner, there is nothing we cannot resolve," presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said in a televised briefing.

"The North delegation expressed its gratitude for allowing the meeting and suggests both sides can cooperate and resolve (problems)," the spokesman said of the meeting at the Blue House.

ECONOMY IN TROUBLE

The delegation arrived on Friday in what was the North's first dispatch of envoys to the South in nearly two years. They were expected to leave just before the state funeral for former President Kim Dae-jung, South Korean officials said.

Kim, awarded the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize for brokering the first summit between the two Koreas that led to a dramatic warming of ties between the rival states, died on Tuesday at the age of 85.

If the North repairs ties with the South, which once supplied it with aid equal to about 5 percent of its estimated $17 billion a year GDP, the impoverished state could then receive a much needed boost to its coffers, analysts said.

North Korea's broken economy has been hit hard by the U.N. sanctions aimed at cutting off a vital source of foreign currency it derives from missile and arms sales.

Few believe it is ready to give up nuclear weapons -- the one thing that gives it leverage and the threat of which has won it repeated concessions in the past.