Chronology of South-North Korea Relations

September 15, 2001 - 0:0
SEOUL Ministers from North and South Korea will meet in Seoul from September 15 to 18, six months after contacts between the neighbors were broken off, Reuters reported.

The following is a chronology of key interactions between the two countries.

June 25, 1950 - Korean War erupts with the invasion of South Korea by North Korea.

July 27, 1953 - Korean War ends, armistice is signed by North Korea, China and United States representing the South, restoring the border at the 38th parallel.

August 15, 1974 - North Korea agent attempts to assassinate president Park Chung-hee in Seoul. Kills the first lady instead.

October 1983 - North Korean commandos attack South Korean ministers in Rangoon, Burma, now known as Myanmar, killing 18 officials, including four ministers.

November 1987 - A Korean air lines jet is bombed by North Korean agents, killing all 115 aboard.

September 1991 - North Korea joins the United Nations along with South Korea.

December 1991 - North Korean prime minister Yon Hyong-muk visits Seoul via Panmunjom and the two Koreas sign an agreement on reconciliation, non-aggression, and exchanges and cooperation.

September 1996 - A North Korean submarine with 26 commandos and crew aboard runs aground on the east coast of South Korea. Twenty-four killed, one captured and one escaped. Eleven of the group believed to have died in group suicide.

June 2000 - South Korean president Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il hold landmark summit in Pyongyang and produce a pact to reduce tension on the divided peninsula and to hold reunions of families torn apart by the Korean war.

August 2000 - Two hundred elderly Koreans from families divided by the Cold War hold reunions in Seoul and Pyongyang. Further reunions held in November and February.

September - Historic meeting of South Korean Defence Minister Cho Sung-tae and North Korean counterpart Kim Il-chul. Working level military talks follow in November.

October 2000 - North Korean military leader Jo Myong-rok visits Washington, the most senior Pyongyang official to visit the United States.

October 2000 - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visits North Korea and holds talks with Kim Jong-il.

March 2001 - North Korea indefinitely postpones ministerial talks after new U.s. President George W. Bush places policy toward North Korea under review and voices doubts over whether Kim Jong-il can be trusted to honor agreements.

September 2001 - Koreas agree to hold fifth set of ministerial talks in Seoul. -