The agency said North Korea's Kim Yong-il and South Korea's Han Duck-soo will discuss further rapprochement and economic cooperation in Pyongyang and not Seoul, as previously expected, adding the agenda and delegation lineup had yet to be agreed.
The leaders of North and South Korea, Kim Jong-il and Roh Moo-hyun, reached an agreement in early October to review legislation in a bid to advance bilateral relations and reunification.
The South Korean law on national security has so far prevented potential bilateral contacts and mutual trust, and describes North Korea as "an anti-government organization." Under the same law, unsanctioned contacts and any praise of Pyongyang are considered a crime.
South Korea has also insisted that the North's Workers' Party should amend its program, which urges "a South Korean revolution" and labels the South "a colony of American imperialism."
To amend the Workers' Party program, North Korea should hold a party congress, but none has been convened since October 1980.
The efforts, however, could face difficulties in Seoul. An attempt by the ruling South Korean Uri party to consider amendments to the law on national security in 2004 was met with a powerful wave of opposition from anti-Pyongyang protestors.
