The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Seoul

The prime ministers of North and South Korea met Wednesday for the first time in 15 years, hoping to extend the detente fostered by the second-ever summit of their leaders last month with new South Korean investment in the impoverished North. North Korean Prime Minister Kim Yong Il said after arriving in Seoul on a direct flight from Pyongyang that he thought the three days of talks would "go well in a warm atmosphere" based on his welcome. The two sides last held prime ministerial talks in 1992 that were suspended amid the first crisis over the North's nuclear weapons program. Kim ranks below the top members of the North's ruling elite: leader Kim Jong Il and the country's No. 2 official Kim Yong Nam. He is meeting with South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who is the deputy of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun. This week's talks are aimed at fleshing out an agreement that Roh and the North Korean leader signed at their October summit in Pyongyang - only the second such meeting since the Korean peninsula was divided more than half a century ago.