Nuclear envoys from South and North Korea will hold a working-level meeting Monday to discuss energy and economic assistance to Pyongyang under an agreement adopted at the six-party talks.

 

The two-day meeting will be held in North Korea's scenic resort of Mount Geumgang. The South Korean delegation is led by Lim Sung-nam, deputy chief of Seoul's delegation to the six-party talks on the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, the Foreign Ministry said.

 

According to the Foreign Ministry, the two sides will discuss what kind of energy assistance North Korea wants to receive and how and by when such aid will be provided.

 

North Korea has received 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil from South Korea in return for shutting down five key nuclear facilities earlier this year under the denuclearization agreement signed in February at the six-party talks.

 

Pyongyang has agreed to disable the nuclear facilities and declare all its nuclear programs by the end of this year.

 

Lim and other negotiators have said North Korea has expressed its willingness to move ahead and complete the planned denuclearization process even before it receives all the economic rewards, local media said.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 22, 2007)