(LEAD) Koreas call for quick excavation of ancient palace site in N. Korea

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with comments by South Korean chief delegate)
SEOUL, Oct. 28 (Yonhap) -- South and North Korea called for a quick resumption of a long-stalled joint project to excavate an ancient royal palace site in the North, Seoul's chief delegate said Friday.
The consensus reached at a meeting between their historians in the North's border city of Kaesong represents the latest sign of easing tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula.
South Korea has recently called for more flexible policies toward the North to try to improve the relations that have been strained over the North's two deadly attacks on the South last year.
The two sides launched the excavation project in 2007, but South Korea halted it last year as part of its sanctions against Pyongyang for the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on the North.
North Korea said it wanted to quickly start unearthing the palace ruins in Kaesong before year's end, Ha Il-sik, the South Korean chief delegate, said after returning home from Kaesong.
Kaesong is the site of Manwoldae, the royal palace of the Goryeo Dynasty that ruled the Korean Peninsula from 918 to 1392.
"North Korea will always be ready for the excavation as long as South Korea is available," Ha quoted an unidentified North Korean official as saying in the roughly three-hour meeting.
Ha, a history professor at Seoul's Yonsei University and leader of the five-member delegation, told the North Koreans that Seoul is also making efforts to resume the project by the end of year.
Experts have said the excavation should be resumed early next month since the ground usually freezes in mid-December and it becomes difficult to unearth the remains.
Ha said his delegation toured the site of Manwoldae for an hour before returning home across the heavily fortified border.
Kaesong served as the capital for most of Goryeo's reign. Now it is home to an industrial complex run by both Koreas.
More than 47,000 North Koreans work for South Korean firms in the Kaesong complex to produce clothes, utensils, watches and other goods. The project serves as a key legitimate cash cow for the impoverished communist country.