Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung reaffirmed Thursday that they will make joint efforts to improve relations with North Korea, attaching great significance to an unprecedented inter-Korean summit next week in Pyongyang, a Foreign Ministry official said.
The Mori-Kim meeting, along with separate meetings the same day between Mori and U.S. President Bill Clinton and between Clinton and Kim, was a significant opportunity to coordinate policy toward North Korea ahead of the June 12-14 summit in Pyongyang.
Kim arrived at Haneda airport Thursday morning to attend the funeral of the late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi.