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