Korean contacts on hold

Visit of North Korean leader to south Reunions of divided families Reopening of rail and road links Closer economic ties

The talks come ahead of a key visit to Pyongyang next week by a South Korean envoy, Lim Dong-won.

South Korea hopes Mr Lim's four-day stay will help renew a stalled dialogue and reduce tension on the peninsula ahead of the football World Cup, which the South is co-hosting.

US talks

South Korea's President Kim Dae-jung has said talks between the two Koreas was "essential", not just for the countries themselves but also for improving US and Japanese relations with the communist North.

Megawati arrived from China

In another sign of diplomatic progress, Japan's health minister is expected to meet his North Korean counterpart in Singapore this weekend.

North Korean officials are also reported to have met US officials in New York earlier this month.

Megawati's visit coincides with a rare session of North Korea's parliament.

Premier Hong Song-nam told the Supreme People's Assembly that the country needed to open up its economy, which analysts say is one of the world's least developed.

"It is necessary to improve trade and economic cooperation and widely conduct joint ventures and collaboration with different countries and international organisations," the official news agency KCNA quoted him as saying.

'Land of bliss'

North Korea's parliament

Known as Supreme People's Assembly 687 members Meets just once or twice a year Kim Jong-il attended last year's one day session

KCNA said the parliament had passed a new land use law which had helped turn rural areas "into a socialist land of bliss".

After her 48-hour trip to the North, Megawati is due to visit the South's capital, Seoul.

North Korea is also preparing to welcome tourists from South Korea and Japan next month for its Arirang festival and for other celebrations to mark the 90th birthday anniversary of the late Kim Il-sung.

The two Koreas remain technically at war as they did not sign a peace treaty at the end of the 1950-53 conflict.