North Korea Agrees To Thaw

North Korea has decided to reopen dialogue with the United States and resume rapprochement with South Korea, a South Korean envoy said Saturday upon returning from the communist North.

"Leader Kim Jong-Il has expressed willingness to open dialogue with the United States, and will accept a U.S. envoy's visit to the North," the envoy, Lim Dong-Won, said at a news conference in Seoul.

Lim said he also won Kim Jong-il's agreement to resume stalled Korean goodwill projects, which were contained in a joint statement that pledged to "fully revive the North-South rapprochement."

The two Koreas agreed to resume reunions of families divided for five decades and to open tourism and economic cooperation talks, Lim said.

The United States reacted cautiously on Saturday.

"We've seen these reports," said a senior White House official traveling with Bush in Texas. "We've always said we're open to dialogue any time, anyplace, anywhere, without preconditions."

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there had been no direct contact with North Korea about the new offer.

"Until we've heard directly from them, we reserve judgment," the official said.

During his four-day stay in the North, Lim held talks with Kim Jong-Il and other top North Korean officials on stalled inter-Korean dialogue and icy relations between Washington and North Korea.

Kim Jong-Il said he would accept a proposed visit to North Korea by a special U.S. envoy and would expand civilian exchanges with the United States, Lim said.

Lim said he understood that Donald Gregg, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, "either began his visit to the North on Friday, or was about to arrive Saturday."

State Department officials have said for months the administration has been willing to meet with Pyongyang officials at any time, any place.

Last June, President Bush offered to resume Clinton-era security negotiations but the North had not indicated a willingness to accept until the announcement in Seoul.

The Clinton administration's talks focused on curbing Pyongyang's missile program. Bush wants to broaden the agenda to include discussions on the North's massive deployment near the demilitarized zone. It has said the North is free to raise any issue it wishes.

Lim conveyed messages from South Korean President Kim Dae-jung urging North Korea to break out of its isolation and build ties with the outside world.

The envoy said the North Korean leader responded "positively."

After walking across the border on Saturday at the border truce village of Panmunjom, 35 miles north of Seoul, South Korean envoy Lim told reporters that his trip to the North "yielded more good results than expected."

South Korea's unification minister, Chung Se-hyun, who greeted the envoy at the village, said that "the biggest part" of an agreement reached by Lim and North Korean officials is a decision to resume work on a cross-border railway line.

President George W. Bush has labeled North Korea part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and Iraq, bent on developing weapons of mass destruction. This week, North Korea's state media declared Washington, Seoul's main ally, the "most wicked sworn enemy" of Korea.official said.