Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, the country's top security policymaker as the chief of the presidential National Security Council, is in North Korea for high-level talks to discuss the nuclear issue and cross-border reconciliation process.

Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon has traveled to Central American nations and New York, accompanying President Roh Moo-hyun. National Security Advisor Kwon Jin-ho and Roh's foreign policy adviser Chung Woo-sung have also joined the 10-day presidential trip.

In New York, Roh plans to deliver a keynote speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday on the resolution of the North Korean nuclear weapons issue and the establishment of a permanent peace on the divided Korean peninsula. It is the first time for Roh to visit the United Nations since he took office in early 2003.

Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon has traveled to Beijing leading a 30-member delegation to the six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons programs resumed on Tuesday.

Song's senior, Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-sik was originally planned to visit the United States this week with relief materials for victims of Hurricane Katrina, but decided to remain in Seoul to prevent any vacuum and send his junior to the United States.

South Korea will provide cash and relief goods worth $30 million to help Katrina victims. Seoul believes strong ties with the United States are necessary to end the North Korean nuclear issue.

"We are making all-out diplomatic efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear problem," a Foreign Ministry official said. The Unification Ministry said it would use this week's inter-Korean talks to persuade North Korea to break the nuclear impasse.

In a keynote address at the Cabinet-level talks in Pyongyang on Wednesday, South Korea's chief negotiator Chung Dong-young urged North Korea to work toward making substantial progress in the ongoing six-nation talks on its nuclear drive.

He said the resolution of the nuclear impasse is necessary to pushing for broader inter-Korean economic cooperation and reconciliation and eventually building a permanent peace on the peninsula.

"The preservation of peace on the Korean peninsula is more important than ever before, and the resolution of the nuclear issue should be settled first," Chung told North Koreans, according to ministry officials who monitor the meeting in the North's capital. "Denuclearization of Korean peninsula must be carried out," he said.

Chung also stressed the need to start talks on establishing a permanent peace mechanism for the peninsula. It is the first time the peninsula peace issue has been put on the official agenda of inter-Korean dialogue since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

The two Koreas remain technically in a state of war as the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

In a bit to promote regular talks on the peace mechanism, Chung proposed to North Korea that both sides open permanent liaison offices in each other's capitals. The liaison offices, if established, can play the role of a diplomatic mission and even handle consular affairs, officials said.

The officials said Seoul will use the inter-Korean talks that end on Friday to call for North Korea to work toward adopting an agreement in the ongoing six-nation talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs.

"The government's position is to actively make use of the inter-Korean dialogue channel for helping the six-party talks make progress," an official said.

The six-party talks, involving the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China, were resumed on Tuesday after a month-long recess.

The multilateral talks have been stalled over North Korea's desire for civilian nuclear power plants, a demand already rejected by the United States for fear that North Korea may convert a civilian nuclear program to military use.

North Korea has insisted that even if it agrees to dismantle its weapons-related nuclear programs, it will still want a right to use nuclear energy for power generation and other peaceful purposes. It has also demanded the completion of the building of two light-water reactors in the communist country.

The United States has ruled out letting North Korea have the light-water reactors for energy purposes for fear about possible diversions for military use. North Korea is unlikely to abandon the light-water reactors which can generate some 2 million kilowatts of electricity, analysts in Seoul say.

Paik Hak-soon, a North Korea analyst at the Sejong Institute in Seoul, said Seoul can play a major role in defusing the nuclear standoff between North Korea and the United States.

"North Korea wants a peace regime to replace the current armistice mechanism and normalize diplomatic relations with the United States as a condition for giving up its nuclear programs. South Korea can play a role in establishing a peace mechanism on the Korean peninsula through dialogue channels with North Korea," he said.

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