"There is a new generation of people," Mr. Gorchakov said, recalling two North Korean ministers who recently came here on separate visits.

Pak Tongjin was the South Korean minister of foreign affairs in the 1970s.

In May 2009, South Korean ministers participated in a major conference on foreign investment in Iran.

The approach raised questions about whether Mr. Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, understood the easily offended sensitivities of the world he has entered.

South and North Korean ministers have not met for formal talks since last September.

He was the only North Korean foreign minister to have met his American counterpart.

For example, Ban became the first senior South Korean minister to travel to the Republic of the Congo since its independence in 1960.

Chin was the first South Korean minister to visit Vietnam since its re-unification in 1976.

The treaty was deemed to have gone into effect after it received the signature of five Korean ministers:

Meanwhile, several South Korean ministers were meeting this morning to draft some sort of appeal to the strikers, a possible sign that a resolution might be coming.