World News & Breaking News II

Seoul (CNN) -- With Kim Jong Un out of sight for a month, a covey of North Korea's high officials popped down to South Korea for a last minute jaunt on Saturday, and delivered a diplomatic bonbon.

The three officials told South Korea that Pyongyang is willing to hold a second round of high-level meetings between late October and early November, South Korea's Unification Ministry said in a statement Saturday.

The first round of talks were held in February.

They are the highest officials from Pyongyang to visit the South since South Korean President Park Geun-hye took office early last year, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

The high politicians' sudden appearance caused a media flurry, with South Korean television network YTN following the delegation's moves with extensive live coverage.

The head of North Korea's military and two ranking members of the ruling Workers' Party gave Seoul short notice on Friday that they were officially dropping in to attend Saturday's closing ceremonies of the Asian Games in the city of Incheon.

The South granted permission the same day to Hwang Pyong-so, Vice Marshal of the Korean People's Army, Kim Yang-gon and Choe Ryong-hae.

Kim Yang-gon is one of North Korea's top politicians responsible for dealings with the South.

Choe is the former head of the military but was replaced in May, triggering some speculation in the international press that he may have fallen out of favor with "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Un. But South Korean analysts say that he remains extremely influential.

He holds a seat as Secretary on the Workers' Party's Central Committee, its highest decision making body, and commands preeminent authority over civilian affairs.

Choe is also chair of Pyongyang's Sports Guidance Commission.

sports sojourn was followed by a lunch with South Korean officials, and Seoul's reunification minister greeted the North Koreans at their hotel.

The delegation met with the South's national security chief Kim Kwan-jin and later with Prime Minister Chung Hong-won.
First-round talks

Is Kim Jong Un no longer in charge? Is North Korea ready for Nuclear talks?

In stark contrast to the bellicose gesturing that has haunted relations in the past, North and South Korea took conciliatory steps in each other's direction in February's first round of high-level talks.

North Korea took the initiative of proposing them as a measure to build trust. At the meeting, both sides agreed to tone down the harshness of their rhetoric.

North Korean propaganda is renowned for its caustic tone. In recent days, for example, North Korea's official news agency KCNA blasted South Korean President Park Geun-hye over her criticism of the communist North's human rights record, calling her a "top class confrontational manic and modern day traitor."

Pyongyang has been particularly irked by joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States, and would like them to cease. The North views them as a prelude to an invasion.

Routine military exercises followed later in the same month the first round of talks was held, and were met with less vitriol and military blustering from the North than in the previous year.

During joint U.S. - South Korean military maneuvers in 2013, Kim Jong Un flung aggressive threats at both countries and set his military in motion.

Following February's talks, South Korea's Unification Ministry proposed a second round last August.
The North Korean side had not responded to the proposal until Saturday.

Missing Leader

Is Kim Jong Un no longer in charge? North Korean defector fights for South
North Korea's dictator Kim has been conspicuously absent even from important state events, and Pyongyang officials have said that he is "suffering from discomfort."

Kim was absent from the Supreme People's Assembly, which is North Korea's Parliament attended by officials of the party, the military and various national organizations. A prominent seat remained empty on stage surrounded by North Korea's top brass.

The 31-year-old leader's absence has fueled speculation that Kim has a health problem, as some observers have pointed to weight gain, as well as a limp when he was seen walking in July.

KCNA, the state-run news agency, routinely catalogs Kim's activities and public appearances. A count of KCNA announcements about Kim's public appearances went from 24 events in July to 16 in August. It dwindled to just one event in September. His last listed public appearance was a September 4 concert, which he attended with his wife Ri Sol Ju.
CNN's KJ Kwon reported from Seoul, Ben Brumfield reported and wrote from Atlanta.

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AUTHORITIES in Mexico have unearthed unmarked graves containing a number of bodies on the outskirts of a town where 43 students disappeared after a deadly police shooting last week.

Inaky Blanco, chief prosecutor for the violence-plagued state of Guerrero, said it was too early to say how many bodies were buried in the pits outside Iguala, 200 kilometres south of Mexico City.

The 43 students disappeared last weekend after Iguala municipal officers shot at buses that the group had seized to return to return home after holding fundraising activities. Three students were killed.

Another three people died when police and suspected gang members shot at another bus carrying football players on the outskirts of town.

A survivor said officers took away 30 to 40 students in patrol cars.

“We still can’t talk about an exact number of bodies. We are still working at the site,” Mr Blanco told a news conference in the state capital, Chilpancingo.

The bodies were taken to forensic experts for genetic tests to check whether they are related to the families of the missing, Mr Blanco said.

Governor Angel Aguirre appealed for calm in his state, which is mired in poverty, gang violence and social unrest.

“I call on all (Guerrero state residents) to maintain harmony, non-confrontation, and avoid violence,” he said.

“To the families and friends of those who were savagely massacred, I offer my solidarity and support as well as the willingness ... for them to hear directly the progress of these investigations,” he said.

The missing students are from a teacher training college near Chilpancingo known as a hotbed of protests.

Thousands of students and teachers blocked the highway between Chilpancingo and Acapulco for hours last Thursday, demanding help from federal authorities to find the missing.

The pits are in a hillside community known as Pueblo Viejo, which is part of the Iguala municipality. Police kept reporters far from the gravesite.

Mr Blanco said investigators had confirmed suspicions that a criminal organisation, the Guerreros Unidos, was involved in last week’s crimes and that local police officers belong to the gang.

The police’s links to organised crime has raised fears about the fate of the students in a country where drug cartels regularly hide bodies in mass graves.

Around 30 bodies were found in mass graves in Iguala alone this year.

“We are very worried. The families are very anxious,” said Vidulfo Rosales, a human rights lawyer representing relatives of the missing.

Authorities have detained 22 Iguala officers over the shootings and issued arrest warrants for the town’s mayor and security chief, both of whom have disappeared.

But Mr Blanco said more than 30 people have now been detained and that more people could be arrested.

Dozens of police officers, soldiers and investigators were deployed to the area after the graves were found.

The United Nations has urged Mexican authorities to conduct an “effective and diligent” search for the missing, calling the case “one of the most terrible events of recent times.”

Parents want to hold out hope, but fearing for the worst is not a great stretch in a country where 80,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since 2006. Another 22,000 people are unaccounted for.

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Iguala de la Independencia (Mexico) (AFP) - Authorities were investigating whether several bodies found in clandestine graves in southern Mexico are those of 43 students who disappeared after a deadly police shooting last week.

The pits were found Saturday on a hill in a community outside Iguala, the town where the students were last seen and where witnesses say municipal police officers whisked several of them away.

Inaky Blanco, chief prosecutor for the violence-plagued state of Guerrero, declined to say how many bodies were buried in the pits outside Iguala, 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Mexico City.

"We still can't talk about an exact number of bodies. We are still working at the site," Blanco told a news conference in the state capital, Chilpancingo.

But two police officers at the scene in the community of Pueblo Viejo told AFP that at least 15 bodies were exhumed from the site, which was cordoned off and guarded by scores of troops and police.

Juan Lopez Villanueva, an official from the National Human Rights Commission, said that six pits were found up a steep hill probably inaccessible by car.

The graves were found after some of the 30 suspects detained in the case told authorities about their location, Blanco said. The detainees include 22 police officers and gang members.

If the students are in those pits, it would be one of the worst slaughters that Mexico has witnessed since the drug war intensified in 2006, leaving 80,000 people dead to date.

The students from a teacher training college disappeared last weekend after Iguala police officers shot at buses that the group had seized to return home after holding fundraising activities on September 26. Three students were killed.

Another three people died when police and suspected gang members shot at another bus carrying football players on the outskirts of town.

Blanco said investigators had confirmed suspicions that a criminal organization, the Guerreros Unidos, was involved in last week's crimes and that local police officers belong to the gang.

Authorities have issue an arrest warrant for Iguala's mayor, who has fled.

- 'Savagely massacred' -

Governor Angel Aguirre appealed for calm in his state, which is mired in poverty, gang violence and social unrest.

"I call on all (Guerrero state residents) to maintain harmony, non-confrontation, and avoid violence," he said, offering his support to the families of those who were "savagely massacred."

The missing students are from a teacher training college near Chilpancingo known as a hotbed of protests.

Thousands of students and teachers blocked the highway between Chilpancingo and Acapulco for hours on Thursday, demanding help from federal authorities to find the missing.

The police's links to organized crime has raised fears about the fate of the students in a country where drug cartels regularly hide bodies in mass graves.

Around 30 bodies were found in mass graves in Iguala alone this year.

"We are very worried. The families are very anxious," said Vidulfo Rosales, a human rights lawyer representing relatives of the missing.

The United Nations has called the case "one of the most terrible events of recent times."

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Bernard said:

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