SEOUL -- South Korean President Kim Dae Jung said Monday that direct talks between Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il are necessary to break the ice in normalization talks and that he is willing to support them, Japanese officials said.
Officials from Japan's three-party ruling coalition quoted Kim as saying the Japanese and North Korean leaders will accept normalization if they are satisfied with the outcome of such direct talks, and that he would do what he could to help realize them.
Kim met with a group Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Hiromu Nonaka, New Komeito Secretary General Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, and New Conservative Party Secretary General Takeshi Noda at the Blue House, his official residence in Seoul.