N. Korea Premier Visits S. Korea : Diplomacy: Prime ministers to hold highest-level talks since the nation was divided. Seoul hopes historic meeting will help build mutual trust.

North Korean Prime Minister Yon Hyong Muk led a delegation into South Korea today for a historic encounter with South Korean leaders and a round of talks on military and political problems that have split the Korean Peninsula for 4 1/2 decades.

Yon’s meeting with South Korean Prime Minister Kang Young Hoon will be the highest-level political contact ever between the two Koreas, which were divided at the end of World War II and have remained hostile since fighting a fratricidal war in 1950-53.

The entourage of seven high-ranking officials, including Yon, 33 aides and 50 reporters, crossed the border in the demilitarized zone at the truce village of Panmunjom at 10 a.m. en route to a downtown Seoul hotel, where formal meetings are to be held Wednesday and Thursday. Yon is also expected to call on President Roh Tae Woo before returning north Friday morning.

Little by way of concrete results is expected from the visit, but South Korean officials expressed the hope that establishing symbolic contact could build mutual trust that would lead to improved relations in the future.

“The two sides have been far apart emotionally, and there has been a deep gap of mistrust,” South Korean Unification Minister Hong Sung Chul told reporters in Seoul on Monday. “It is most important for the governments of both countries to restore mutual confidence.”

Just the fact of the meeting was a breakthrough in itself. Until agreement was reached July 26 to hold talks here this week and again in the northern capital of Pyongyang in mid-October, North Korea’s basic position had been to refuse to recognize the Seoul government as legitimate. Negotiations between the two Koreas to promote political and humanitarian exchanges have started and stopped intermittently since 1972.

The latest significant event occurred in 1985, when some separated families were allowed to visit each other briefly in a Red Cross-sponsored exchange.

Pressure has been mounting recently on Pyongyang to demonstrate more flexibility in the inter-Korean dialogue, particularly from the Soviet Union, which is North Korea’s major trading partner and arms supplier. Moscow and Seoul are getting close to establishing diplomatic relations, and the Cold War thaw is forcing Pyongyang on the defensive.

Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze visited the North Korean capital over the weekend for discussions on “the situation on the Korean peninsula,” the Soviet news agency Tass reported, without elaborating.

On the agenda during the talks between Yon and Kang, both weak prime ministers serving under very strong presidents, is an array of intractable disputes. The two sides are expected to touch on proposals for disarmament, United Nations membership, family reunions, economic cooperation and North Korean demands for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the South.