Former SKorea president Kim Young-Sam dies

Kim’s term was bookended by two major events, the first nuclear crisis with North Korea in 1994 and the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98, when he accepted a $58 billion bailout from the worldwide Monetary Fund.

That agreement followed a spike in military tensions on the peninsula, and included the promise to continue dialogue.

Former US President Jimmy Carter brokered a deal under which the North agreed to freeze and eliminate its nuclear facilities, but that deal collapsed in 2002.

North Korea fired scores of artillery shells at South Korea’s Yeonpyeong island on November 23, 2010, killing four people including two civilians in one of the heaviest attacks on its neighbour since the Korean War ended in 1953.

The two sides reportedly held reunions last month for families separated during the Korean War.

Pyongyang’s decision also came as discussion is under way for United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to visit North Korea.

The North later expressed its “deep regret” for the intrusion that left 24 North Korean agents and 13 South Koreans dead. The North apologized after the incident in a rare show of rationality.

North Korea has seen its global isolation deepen due to its persistent pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Next week’s working-level meeting is likely to flesh out details and agenda for high-level talks, but it still remains to be seen whether such talks can be held, experts say.

The working-level talks are aimed at preparing for government-level negotiations that were agreed to in August in a landmark deal to improve ties.

Pyongyang has attached preconditions to high-level talks in response to Seoul’s previous similar offers.

“We categorically reject “the human rights resolution”, a vivid expression of the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK (North Korea) and a typical example of politicisation of human rights… and double-standards, as it is a serious politically-motivated provocative document”, a foreign ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the North’s official KCNA news agency.