’NK offers high-level meeting for summit with S. Korea’

ATLANTA (Yonhap) -- A senior North Korean official has told "The Elders," a group of retired state leaders, that Pyongyang is willing to hold a high-level meeting with Seoul in January to discuss a possible inter-Korean summit, a U.S.-based Korean scholar familiar with the group said Saturday.

The North Korean official, whose name was withheld, delivered the intention to the global non-government organization in August and the group's delegation is scheduled to visit and inform South Korea of the proposal this week, the scholar said on condition of anonymity. The group's delegation will then travel to North Korea, the scholar added.

"The North Korean official met senior members of The Elders in August in New York and asked them to convey the North's willingness to hold the high-level meeting in January to the South," the scholar told Yonhap News Agency by telephone.

Inter-Korean tensions remain tense following the North's two deadly military attacks against the South that killed a total of 50 South Koreans, mostly soldiers.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, whose term ends in early 2013, has expressed willingness in principle to hold a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il but has said that Pyongyang must first take responsibility for the attacks.

In recent months, however, South Korea has called for flexibility in dealing with North Korea in an apparent effort to improve the soured ties.

Lee's two liberal predecessors held summit talks with the North Korean leader in Pyongyang in 2000 and 2007, respectively.

In April this year, a delegation of "The Elders," led by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, made a three-day trip to North Korea.

At that time, Carter said he did not meet Kim Jong-il, but Kim's written message was read to him by a North Korean official just before he and his entourage left the country. In the message, Kim expressed his intent to meet Lee at any time on any subject, Carter said.