SEOUL, June 17 (UPI) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il met South Korea's top security official Friday and received a verbal message from President Roh Moo-hyun.
In the message, Roh called for Kim to make a strategic decision to abandon the country's nuclear drive in return for massive economic aid, officials in Seoul said.
Kim met South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young in an unknown place in Pyongyang for about five hours, they said. The meeting included a private one-one-one session between the two leaders and a luncheon, joined by several other South Korean delegation members.
Kim, who is leading a 40-member delegation to Pyongyang for celebrations to mark the anniversary of their landmark summit in 2000, return home late Friday.
He delayed his departure for Seoul because of the crucial meeting with North Korea's reclusive leader.
South Korea has vowed to use the rate contacts with the North to get Pyongyang back to the six-nation talks that stalled for a year.
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