S Korea offers meeting to North

South Korea'S President Kim Young Sam yesterday offered to meet North Korea's leader, Kim Il Sung, to discuss the North's nuclear programme, writes Terry McCarthy in Tokyo. It would be the first meeting between the leaders of the two Koreas.

North Korea is still in dispute with the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency over the terms of possible nuclear inspections, and continues to refuse outright any opening up of the two most suspect sites in its main nuclear facility. The offer of a summit marks another small diplomatic victory for the Pyongyang regime, since the South Koreans have up to now maintained that the nuclear issue must first be settled before a meeting of the two Korean leaders could take place.