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President Lee also asked the DPRK delegation to deliver his message to the DPRK leader, the spokesman said.

The DPRK delegates, in return, said they hoped the two Koreas will “cooperate” on every issue they face, also expressing gratefulness for the meeting, Lee said.

The meeting was said to have been held in a “serious, yet warm” mood, according to Lee.

The spokesman, however, did not identify the details of the message from Kim Jong IL, saying “it should not be publicized as it is a sensitive issue.”

An official at the presidential office said issues related to four detained fishermen or resumption of inter-Korean talks were not brought up during the meeting, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency said.

The meeting was widely expected to deal with thorny inter-Korean issues, such as the fishermen hauled by the DPRK authorities on July 30 and restart of inter-Korean dialogue.

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Asked if he too was ready to withdraw the whip from his MPs if they refused, he said: “If, of course, people are not prepared to co-operate, then we will have to consider that action.”
About 600 MPs are getting letters containing the interim results of a review of their second homes expenses claims since 2004 by former civil servant Sir Thomas.
He has applied new limits to categories like gardening (£1,000 a year) and cleaning (£2,000 a year).
Many backbenchers are livid, saying they are now being told by Sir Thomas to repay claims that were allowed at the time by Commons officials.
But Sir Thomas’s letter said that there appeared to have been no limits for services like gardening and cleaning and “some limits must be regarded as having been in place, to prevent disproportionate and unnecessary expenditure from the public purse”.
Labour MP Bill Etherington, 68, who is standing down at the next election told his local paper the Sunderland Echo :”If he has decided I shouldn’t have claimed something which I feel was justifiable under the rules at the time, then I won’t pay it.
“If I don’t think it’s correct they can take the matter to court.”
Sir Thomas cannot force MPs to repay any money and his recommendations will be put to the Commons’ Members Estimate Committee, which will decide what to do next.

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The head of the Honduran armed forces, who oversaw the removal of President Manuel Zelaya from the country, has urged talks on the political crisis.
Gen Romeo Vasquez Velasquez told reporters he was confident that the political stand-off could be resolved.
Mr Zelaya made a dramatic return from exile on 21 September and is holed up in the Brazilian embassy.
The interim government is meanwhile coming under pressure to revoke a decree that suspended civil liberties.
Members of Congress have indicated they will act to rescind the order if the government of interim leader Roberto Micheletti does not.
The measures, which allow unauthorised public meetings to be banned and news media to be temporarily closed down, were introduced at the weekend in response to a call for protests by Mr Zelaya.
However, amid concern that the elections scheduled for 29 November could be affected, Mr Micheletti on Monday indicated the decree could soon be lifted.
Rigoberto Chang, a congressman from the conservative National Party, told the Associated Press they had not been consulted about the security decree.
He also criticised the decision to close two pro-Zelaya broadcasters.
“It’s less damaging to talk on the television or radio than being on the streets throwing stones,” Mr Chang said.
His comments appear to point to widening splits among those who initially supported Mr Zelaya’s removal from power and backed the interim government, correspondents say.
On Tuesday, a central figure in the political drama, Gen Vasquez, reappeared on the scene, being interviewed on local television and then visiting a hotel where many foreign journalists are staying.
“All sectors of society should put aside their difference to unite the homeland,” Gen Vasquez said, adding that he was hopeful the crisis could soon be resolved.
Gen Zelaya was sacked on 25 June by Mr Zelaya after refusing to allow soldiers to give logistical support to a vote on constitutional change.
The Supreme Court had declared the vote, which Mr Zelaya said was a non-binding public consultation, unconstitutional.
Mr Zelaya’s opponents said the move was aimed at removing the current one-term limit on serving as president, so paving the way for Mr Zelaya’s possible re-election. Mr Zelaya has denied this.

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Statisticians Dr John Bryant and Dr Norman Wolmark, also writing in the New England Journal, said that the decision to stop the research “undeniably diminished” the clinical usefulness of the data.
“Although the results demonstrate a meaningful biologic effect of letrozole therapy, they do not demonstrate a significant survival benefit.”
They said that “concern” about long-term side effects remained, and that the study, by finishing early, had failed to resolve the question it had been set up to test.
However, in the UK, cancer experts welcomed the results.
Professor Ian Smith, Head of the Breast Unit at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London - one of the centres taking part in the trial, said: “This is one of the most important advances in the treatment of postmenopausal women with breast cancer, and is a further valuable step in preventing disease recurrence.”
Professor Jack Cuzick, from Cancer Research UK, said: “Letrozole is a very similar drug to anastrozole, an approved treatment for breast cancer in postmenopausal women which Cancer Research UK is testing as a preventive drug in women at high risk of the disease.
“Both drugs are aromatase inhibitors and work by halting the production of oestrogen - the hormone responsible for the development of many breast cancers.
“The new findings are further evidence that aromatase inhibitors look like becoming the most effective hormone treatments for breast cancer in postmenopausal women, with the potential to save a great many lives.”
Doctors are already allowed to use letrozole in the UK for the treatment of advanced breast cancer in some women.
Delyth Morgan, Chief Executive of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: “The results of this study look very promising - this drug offers a new way in which disease recurrence could be prevented and increases the arsenal of therapies available for women with breast cancer.
“However, since the trial was terminated early we would welcome more research to establish the long-term effectiveness and side effects of this drug.”

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Another important step is the lifting of restrictions on Cuban Americans sending money home as well as what they can include in care packages.
For a country where the average salary is around $20 (£13) a month, these remittances are an important economic lifeline for thousands of people.
President Obama is also allowing US telecommunications companies to bid for licences here, though it is unlikely the Cuban Authorities will co-operate.
But if this includes access to the internet through the US undersea fibre-optic cables, that could have a major impact.
At present the only internet available in Cuba is via satellite. It is expensive and slow.
The government here has long claimed that this is the reason why people cannot have the internet at home.

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The two firms aim to dominate this next generation of mobile entertainment.
Nintendo is the market leader in mobile gaming and has sold more than 190 million Game Boys world-wide.
It fired a warning to Sony that it would not give up its position without a fight and said the firm would have a difficult time overtaking a market already dominated by its Game Boy Advance console.
“By the time the PSP gets onto the ballot, more than 25 million people will have voted for Game Boy Advance,” said Nintendo America’s George Harrison, using an electoral metaphor.
Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo America’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, said the Dual Screen device would not only change Nintendo, it would change the games industry.
“It represents a brand new way for gamers to relate to their games and to each other,” he said.

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Speaking to leaders gathered in Port of Spain, Mr Obama declared: “The US seeks a new beginning with Cuba.”
“I know there is a longer journey that must be travelled to overcome decades of mistrust, but there are critical steps we can take toward a new day,” he said.
Cuba is excluded from the summit, which includes 34 members of the Organisation of American States (OAS), though Latin American leaders have been calling for Cuba to be readmitted.
The US has not maintained high-level diplomatic relations with Cuba since 1960, a year after Fidel Castro led the island’s revolution.
Washington also imposed partial trade sanctions in 1960, expanding it to a full economic embargo in 1962.
Under former US President George W Bush, measures were put in place to support Cuban opposition and “hasten the end” of the Castro regime.
However, speaking on Friday in the Dominican Republic, Mrs Clinton acknowledged that US policy towards Cuba had “failed” and said Washington was “taking a very serious look at how to respond.”

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Most newspapers focus their attention on the gunman and speculate about his possible motives for turning on his army colleagues. But the effects of the shootings on the military community in Fort Hood also feature prominently.
Ann Scott Tyson in The Washington Post looks at the growing strain multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan have had on the men and women stationed in Fort Hood, with suicide rates and post-traumatic stress disorder hitting record highs.
“The psychological toll on the all-volunteer force today is unprecedented, army officials say, acknowledging that they do not know how much the army can sustain before it breaks - making the health of the force a major consideration in President Obama’s current deliberations over sending more US troops to Afghanistan.”
Lyndy Kyzer, writing on Army Live, the official blog of the US Army, says that for the soldiers who “have already given so much, to endure such tragedy so close to home is truly tragic”.
She hopes that there will be answers soon as the investigation progresses:
“This is the kind of tragedy that comes with many unanswered questions. We trust that in the coming days the Army Criminal Investigation Division, FBI and other federal agencies playing a role in the investigation will continue to provide details as they’re able, and we’ll continue to keep you updated.”

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So-called exoplanets - planets in star systems outside our own - come in different sizes and move in a variety of orbits at different distances from their central stars. Some are nearly circular; others quite elongated.
Some are five to 10 times more massive than the largest planet in our Solar System, Jupiter. The lightest exoplanets known are about half as massive as Saturn, i.e. about 50 times more massive than the Earth.
Last year, a list of 59 such possible cases of stars with transiting planets was announced by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (Ogle).
The latest star, Ogle-TR-3, is very similar to our Sun, with a temperature of about 5,800 Celsius (6100 Kelvin).
Although there are still uncertainties, the researchers provisionally deduce a mass for the planet of about one half of that of Jupiter. The density is found to be about one-quarter of that of water, or one-fifth of that of Jupiter, meaning that the planet is quite big for its mass.
The orbital period, 28 hours 33 minutes, is the shortest known for any exoplanet and the distance between the star and the planet is correspondingly small, only 3.5 million kilometres.
This means that the temperature on the side of the planet facing the star must be very high, of the order of 2,000 C, suggesting that the planet must be losing its atmosphere by evaporation.
The astronomers suggest that it might be possible to observe this exoplanet directly because of its comparatively strong infrared radiation. An attempt will be made soon.
As only the third exoplanet found this way, the new object confirms the impression that a considerable number of stars may possess giant planets in close orbits around them.
Since such planets cannot form so close to their parent star, they must have migrated inwards to the current orbit from a much larger, initial distance. It is not known how this happens.

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The latest round of UN climate talks in Bangkok has ended with deep divisions over the shape of a new global treaty.
Developing countries want an extension of the Kyoto Protocol; but developed nations are arguing for a completely new agreement.
Poorer countries and environment groups accuse the west of lacking ambition.
There are now only five negotiating days left until the opening of the UN summit in Copenhagen in December that is supposed to finalise the new treaty.
“Just two months before Copenhagen, the Bangkok climate negotiations did little to move the ball forward,” said Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists and a leading light in the international climate campaign TckTckTck.
Bold steps are clearly needed from the world’s leaders to break the deadlock in the negotiations, and time is running short.”
The fortnight of talks in Bangkok began with negotiators looking at about 200 pages of text with 2,000 items that had yet to be agreed.
Progress has been made during the session, said delegates, but fundamental divisions remained.
“This session has shown that it can be done,” said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN climate convention (UNFCCC).
“All of the ingredients for success are on the table, and what we must do now is to hold back from self interest and let the common interest prevail.”

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