The fifth inter-Korean ministerial meeting opened here yesterday morning, with the two sides exchanging ideas on the issues on the meeting agenda.

"We exchanged our opinions on the issues on the agenda, and that's all we did this morning," said Unification Minister Hong Soon-young, head of the Republic of Korean (ROK) delegation to the four-day meeting held at the Olympia Hotel in Seoul.

"The two parties presented their stances and proposals this morning. We are going to work out an agreement on the agenda in subsequent meetings, said Kim Ryong Song, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s senior cabinet councillor who is leading DPRK delegation.

DPRK leader Kim Jong-il's visit to ROK was not discussed at the meeting.

At the meeting yesterday morning, the ROK delegation proposed plans to settle issues agreed in the first inter-Korean summit between ROK President Kim Dae-jung and DPRK leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang last year, said a spokesman of the ROK delegation.

It also suggested the inter-ministerial meeting on a regular basis, measures to ease the pains of separated families.

The ROK proposed yesterday that inter-Korean Red Cross talks be held as soon as possible to help reunite more separated family members on the divided peninsula.

The talks aimed at following up on accords between the ROK President Kim Dae-jung and the DPRK leader Kim Jong-il at a summit in the North's capital, Pyongyang, in June last year.

After the summit, the two sides staged three rounds of temporary reunions for a total of 600 separated family members. The ROK wants to arrange more reunions.

TheROK delegation also urged the DPRK to implement the agreements on relinking inter-Korean railway and high-way, setting the site of an industrial complex to be constructed for the ROK businesses in Kaesong city of the DPRK, and building a overland tourist road from the ROK to DPRK's Mount Kumgang, said the spokesman.

（Xinhua News Agency 09/17/2001)