North Korea agrees to meet US sodiers' families

In a sign of quickening co-operation on a crucial bilateral issue, North Korea has agreed to meet the families of American soldiers missing from the Korean War, the US said.

Friday's talks will be the first between North Korea and the American families, 'and we view this as a positive sign of North Korea's interest in making progress on this humanitarian issue,' John Dinger, a State Department spokesman, said.

But a Pentagon military official said he understood that so far only one member of one family had agreed to attend.