Korean Presidents Await Prime Ministers’ Accord

North Korean President Kim Il Sung said Thursday that he hopes to meet “at an early date” with South Korean President Roh Tae Woo, but he said the two prime ministers must first work out a basic agreement.

Kim’s statement capped a second round of talks between South Korean Prime Minister Kang Young Hoon and his counterpart, Yon Hyong Muk, which failed to produce any agreement except to meet again for a third round in Seoul on Dec. 11-14. The first talks took place last month in Seoul.

Spokesmen for both sides said some progress has been made in the talks just concluded in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.

Details of discussions have been sent to Seoul by a press pool accompanying the southern delegation.

Lim Dong Wan, spokesman for the south, said the two sides are narrowing their differences and that he is “optimistic that many issues will be resolved in the third round.”

Ahn Byong Su, spokesman for the North Koreans, said: “The south has promised to take a positive attitude. We hope an agreement will be signed at the third round.”

Kim, who has been the north’s leader since partition after World War II, and who ordered the invasion of South Korea in 1950, told Prime Minister Kang, “The talks proceeded smoothly, with your help.” He said he is pleased that a third round will be held.

The press pool reports indicated that proposals put forth by the two sides for a statement of principles were so close in content that it was difficult to understand why no agreement was reached. Yet the two sides failed to agree even on a title for such a statement.

The north insisted on calling it a “nonaggression declaration,” while the south demanded that it be called a “joint statement for reconciliation and peace.”

Ahn, the North Korean spokesman, noted that his side had refrained from including “two points very sensitive points to the South--the withdrawal of U.S. troops and U.S. nuclear weapons.”

“There isno reason we can’t sign this declaration now, he said. “

The south’s Kang said a nonagression agreement would require the approval of South Korea’s National Assembly. And he said the south objected to several points in the north’s proposal.

Both proposals called for a pledge of nonaggression, an end to the arms race, arms reduction, and the forming of a military communications hot line.