Koreas discuss U.S. dialogue

SEOUL, South Korea -- A South Korean presidential envoy met North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Thursday to urge the communist country to ease tensions on the divided Korean peninsula by resuming dialogue with the United States and South Korea. \nKim Jong Il held a dinner for the envoy, Lim Dong-won, in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, said Kim Hong-je, a South Korean spokesman. \nLim delivered a letter from South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and "relayed President Kim's proposal for peace and cooperation between the two Koreas," the spokesman told reporters in Seoul. \nBefore leaving for North Korea, Lim said he was carrying a U.S. proposal for Kim Jong Il to resume dialogue with Washington over the North's weapons of mass destruction. \nIt was not clear whether and how Kim Jong Il responded to the offers. \nEarlier Thursday, South Korean officials said Lim's talks in Pyongyang ran into difficulty as North Korea accused Seoul and Washington of plotting to provoke a war on the divided Korean peninsula. Lim arrived in Pyongyang on Wednesday for three days of talks on easing tensions. \nContacts between the United States and North Korea, which expanded during the last months of the Clinton administration, halted when President Bush took office last year. \nWashington fears the North is developing missiles and weapons of mass destruction. The North is believed to have 5,000 tons of chemical weapons and missiles capable of reaching part of the continental United States. \nBilateral relations further deteriorated after Bush designated North Korea in January as part of an "an axis of evil," with ambitions to develop weapons of mass destruction.