South Korean government said Sunday that it decided to accept Pyongyang's offer of holding inter- Korean talks next week.
It will be the first governmental talks between South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea(DPRK) since South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in February last year.
The DPRK last week offered to hold talks with South Korean officials on Tuesday in DPRK's border city of Kaesong.
The DPRK delivered the suggestion to the South Korean authorities through a message on Friday.
The DPRK said at the message that they will inform "significant issues" to South Korea at the inter-Korean contact but didn't explain more details.
The suggestion on inter-Korean contact came amid mounting tensions on the Korean Peninsula after the DPRK launched a rocket carrying a satellite earlier this month despite warnings by the United States, South Korea and Japan.
After the UN Security Council adopted a presidential statement over DPRK's rocket launch earlier this week, the DPRK vowed to quit the six-party talks on the nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula and ordered all international nuclear monitors to leave the country.
(Xinhua News Agency April 19, 2009)
