North Korea envoys to meet South's president

South Korea's Unification Minister Hyun In-Taek (R) and Kim Yang Gon, Department Director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of North Korea pose before their meeting at a hotel in Seoul August 22, 2009.

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean envoys, in Seoul to mourn the death this week of former President Kim Dae-jung, will meet South Korea's current leader Sunday, the first such meeting since he took office 18 months ago.

It is the latest sign that the impoverished North is re-emerging from its shell after nuclear and military tests earlier in the year met with tightened U.N. sanctions and further isolation.

The Unification Ministry said the delegation would meet President Lee Myung-bak for about 15 minutes from 10 a.m. (9 p.m. EDT).

It suggests the communist state may be willing to work on improving relations with the South which have turned increasingly sour since conservative President Lee took office, ending years of generous aid and making it conditional on Pyongyang moving to end its development of nuclear weapons.

"There is a message just in holding the meeting," the South's Unification Minister Hyun In-taek told reporters ahead of his almost two-hour talks earlier Saturday with the delegation which included a senior aide to reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

Local media reports said the delegation would be bringing a message from Kim Jong-il.

The international community is looking for signs whether Pyongyang is ready to return to talks on ending its program to build an atomic arsenal and which it has repeatedly spurned.

It was not clear whether the North Korean delegation would also attend the funeral Sunday afternoon of former President Kim, a towering figure in the South's shift to democracy who initiated the "Sunshine Policy" to try to warm relations with the North.

His efforts resulted in the first ever summit between the leaders of the two Koreas and won Kim the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize.

Although the North has made a number of conciliatory gestures in recent weeks, analysts warn that it has a long history of blowing hot and cold in its relations with the outside world.

Few believe it is ready to give up nuclear weapons -- the one thing that gives it leverage and the threat of which has won it repeated concessions in the past.

The latest moves also coincide with reports that the economy in North Korea, which is always on the edge of famine, may be heading into deeper difficulties from a combination of international sanctions and a poor harvest.

There was no official word on what the two sides might discuss, but the South's Yonhap news agency said they would focus on resuming talks between the two governments and also the return of fishermen detained by the North late last month after their boat strayed across the border.

(Additional reporting by Yoo Choonsik and Jon Herskovitz, writing by Jonathan Thatcher; editing by Robin Pomeroy)