Korean talks get under way

Greetings were cordial, but will talks achieve anything?

Officials from North and South Korea are meeting to see whether they can revive ministerial contacts between the two sides, which have been suspended since November.

The meeting - the first in four months - starts exactly five weeks since a naval clash in the Yellow Sea sank a South Korean warship.

South Korea wants an explanation for the naval incident

In the past week, North Korea has expressed regret for the clash and offered to meet the American-led United Nations command to discuss what happened.

A spokesman for the South's Unification Ministry Jung Ro Kim said he believed economic hardship in the north is driving the change.

The sea battle on 29 June left four South Korean sailors and an estimated 30 North Koreans dead, in the two sides' worst maritime clash for three years.

Talks hopes

North Korea wants to reopen high-level contact with the United States but US officials say the outcome of this weekend's inter-Korean talks will be a factor in deciding whether or not they send a delegation to the Communist state.

The discussions, at North Korea's remote Diamond Mountain resort, are expected to set a date for higher-level talks between the two sides.

The meeting is also expected to focus on resuming stalled inter-Korean projects.

They include reunions between elderly relatives from the two Koreas who have been separated for the past half-century, and reconnecting a cross-border railway.

The surprise offer to re-establish dialogue was made by North Korea last week after it expressed regret for last month's naval clash, although it stopped short of issuing an apology.

The Southern delegation has said it will seek an explanation over the incident and demand that steps are taken to prevent future clashes.

North Korea is calling for the maritime border to be renegotiated.