North and South Korea move towards air link

A North Korean passenger plane has flown to South Korea to test a planned air link.

It is the first positive contact between the two Koreas since their navies fought a sea border skirmish last month.

A 70-seat passenger plane of North Korea's Air Koryo landed at Yangyang International Airport in eastern South Korea.

It carried only the 14-member crew, said officials at the Ministry of National Unification, which handles relations with the communist North.

In January, an international consortium called the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization and North Korea agreed to open an inter-Korean air route to facilitate a 1994 agreement to build two nuclear power plants in North Korea.

In the test flight, the plane returned to North Korea an hour later carrying eight South Korean nuclear technicians to Sunduck Airport near Sinpo on the North's east coast where the consortium is building the two reactors.

Under the 1994 accord, the United States promised North Korea two reactors in return for a freeze on the communist regime's suspected nuclear weapons program.

Consortium officials say the completion of the two reactors, originally set for 2003, will be delayed for several years because of funding and other problems.

The flight comes four weeks after North and South Korean patrol boats fought a gunfight near their disputed western sea border, souring relations between the nations. One South Korean navy patrol boat sank, killing four sailors and wounding 19 others. One was listed missing.

North Korea said it also suffered casualties but did not disclose details. South Korean officials said about 30 communist sailors were believed to have died.