SEOUL - South Korea's president will hold formal talks with reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Wednesday, after the second summit of two states technically still at war got off to a cool start.
Roh Moo-hyun has said he wants the summit to ease tensions between the foes along the Cold War's last frontier and help the economy of his northern neighbor, which is in international talks to give up its ambition to be a nuclear weapons power in exchange for massive aid and an end to its pariah status.
Kim barely spoke to Roh on his arrival in Pyongyang on Tuesday as only the second South Korean leader to visit the communist state.
The greeting was in sharp contrast to Kim's effusive welcome for South Korea's then-president, Kim Dae-jung, at the first summit in 2000. Then, the two leaders rode together in cars, embraced, held hands and sang patriotic songs.
Roh's critics say the visit is aimed more at domestic politics and expect him to avoid the issues of nuclear weapons and human rights abuses so as not to offend his paranoid host.
In a step forward in the negotiations, the United States said it had approved a tentative deal reached in the six-party talks, hosted by China, that would disable facilities at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex by the end of the year.
"We have conveyed to the Chinese government our approval for the draft statement," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said at a news briefing on Tuesday.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the top U.S. negotiator, said he expected China to issue a joint statement in the next day or two that "relates very directly to how we can move forward in the coming months on a certain timetable."
Hill also said he hoped to know by the end of the year how much fissile material, which can be used to make nuclear weapons, Pyongyang has produced.
Beyond the two Koreas, China and the United States, the other two members of the six-party talks are Japan and Russia.
