North Korea's Kim moots summit with South

Seoul

NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-un proposed the "highest-level" talks with South Korea on Thursday, opening the way to a historic summit as his communist country battles to fend off international prosecution over its dismal human rights record.

The sudden move, made during his traditional New Year message, would clear the path for the first top-level inter-Korean meeting since a 2007 summit in Pyongyang.

"Depending on the mood and circumstances to be created, we have no reason not to hold the highest-level talks," Mr Kim said, calling for a turnaround in icy relations between the two Koreas, which are technically at war.

Seoul has welcomed the call as "meaningful" and suggested the two sides resume dialogue soon. "Our government hopes South and North Korea will hold dialogue without formality in the near future," Ryoo Kihl-jae, the South's unification minister in charge of inter-Korean affairs, told a briefing. "The government takes (Mr Kim's message) as meaningful as it s…