N. Korea's Kim Yong Nam to visit RI

N. Korea's Kim Yong Nam to visit RI

JAKARTA: North Korea's ceremonial head of state will visit Indonesia next week for talks with President Megawati Soekarnoputri, a palace official said on Wednesday.

Kim Yong Nam, speaker of the North Korean Supreme People's Assembly, will arrive in Jakarta on July 10 for a three-day visit, said presidential staffer Garibaldi Sudjatmiko.

Kim Yong Nam will be the communist state's highest-ranking leader to visit Indonesia since the early 1960s.

In March, Megawati met North Korean President Kim Jong Ill in Pyongyang. She brought the North Korean leader a message from South Korean President Kim Dae Jung urging the communist North to revive dialog with Seoul.

Inter-Korean relations, which had improved in 2000, were hurt by tension between the United States and North Korea that arose after U.S. President George W. Bush labeled North Korea part of an "axis of evil". -- AP