President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il will hold summit talks in Pyongyang at the end of this month.

The two Koreas agreed during recent contacts to hold the second inter-Korean summit talks from August 28th to 30th.

The South Korean government announced the planned summit Wednesday morning at a joint news conference attended by national security adviser Baek Jong-chun, Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung and National Intelligence Service Director Kim Man-bok.

North Korea also made a similar annoucement the same morning.

An official said that a senior Seoul official visited North Korea twice earlier this month to fine-tune details of the summit and that the agreement was finalized on Sunday.

Seoul plans to discuss details of the summit talks during a Cabinet meeting to be presided over by Mr. Roh later on Wednesday.

The government also plans to establish panels to prepare the agenda of the Roh-Kim talks.

The upcoming inter-Korean summit will be the second such meeting, following the June 2000 summit between former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.