updated 9:48 p.m. ET April 20, 2009
SEOUL, South Korea - South Korean officials traveled Tuesday to North Korea for the first meeting between the two governments in more than a year, amid tension over Pyongyang's moves to restart its nuclear program following a defiant(公然违抗的) rocket launch.
Adding strain to the meeting was North Korea's recent warning that the South not join a U.S.-led program to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. The North also has been holding a South Korean worker at a joint industrial complex(合资的大工业中心) for allegedly(依其叙述) denouncing Pyongyang's political system.
South Korea hopes to try to win the release of the detained(被拘留的) worker during the talks.
Analysts and media have speculated(推测) the North could use the meeting to raise tensions by threatening to further undermine(削弱) the troubled industrial zone in Kaesong, just north of the border, if Seoul announces its participation in the anti-WMD program.
WMD：weapons of mass destruction 大规模杀伤性武器