"On 25 July, Kim Yong-song, the head of our side's delegation to the North-South minister-level talks, sent a telephone message to Chong Se-hyon, head delegate of the South side's delegation. The telephone message is as follows:

"Today, both parties of the North and South face an important period in realizing the historic 15 June Joint Declaration and the 5 April Joint Communique, which is for its implementation.

"[We] regret the armed clash incident that accidentally took place in the West Sea [Yellow Sea] sometime ago and think both parties of the North and South need to exert concerted efforts to prevent the recurrence of such an incident in the future.

"We recognize that it would not only be commensurate with the common interests of the nation but with the basic spirit of the 15 June Joint Declaration, which stipulates that we solve problems by our own nation, to put North-South relations back to their original state by giving attention to today's North-South relations and resuming authorities' talks that had come to a halt as soon as possible, and to take positive measures aimed at promoting reconciliation, unity, and cooperation.

"From such a position, our side proposes that the seventh North-South minister-level talks be held in Seoul and that working-level talks between the delegates to the North-South minister-level talks first be held in early August on Mt. Kumgang in order to smoothly discuss the issue of implementing the 5 April Joint Communique, which includes the issues of linking the North-South railways and separated families and relatives - which the two sides have already agreed on - and other issues of interest.

"We express our hope that your side will show a positive response to this constructive proposal of our side.

"The head of our delegation to the North-South minister-level talks sent a telephone message as the above to the head delegate of the South side's delegation."

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.