N. Korean delegation requests meeting with S. Korean president: official

(ATTN: UPDATES with remarks, additional details)
SEOUL, Aug. 22 (Yonhap) -- North Korean officials on a trip here to pay respects
to South Korea's late former President Kim Dae-jung asked Saturday for a meeting
with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, an official at the presidential office
Cheong Wa Dae said.
The request came at a meeting between the North Korean delegates and Seoul's
unification minister Hyun In-taek, according to the official.
Hyun was still in a meeting with Lee over lunch to brief the president about his
meeting with the North Koreans, the official said, asking not to be identified.
"There would have been no reason for Minister Hyun to have lunch with the
president unless the North Koreans asked to meet with President Lee," the
official told Yonhap News Agency.
The six-member North Korean delegation, headed by a close aide of North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il, arrived here Friday to pay respects to the late Kim Dae-jung,
who died Tuesday of complications from pneumonia.
The North Koreans were the first officials to visit South Korea since
inter-Korean relations soured following the conservative South Korean president's
inauguration early last year.
The North Koreans were set to return to the North later Saturday.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)