South Korea's Kim Dae-jung to visit North on June 27

SEOUL, May 29 (Reuters) Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who orchestrated an unprecedented meeting of the two Korea's leaders in 2000, will probably cross the border with the North on June 27 for a visit to Pyongyang, an official said.

Kim, who is expected to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, has said he hopes to use the meeting to help retart stalled six-country talks on ending the North's nuclear programmes.

There has been no agreement with the North on whether Kim would take the train, as he had hoped, an official quoted former South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun as saying.

The talks on Kim's visit will continue next week, Jeong added on his return from talks in the North to arrange the visit.

If Kim did take the train, it would be a deeply symbolic step in the improving ties between the two Koreas. North Korea called off test train runs over the heavily fortified border last week, scuttling the first rail crossings in more than half a century.

''There was a sharing of view on travel by land, but more discussions are needed on whether it would be by train,'' the official said.

South Korea's proposal for Kim to take the train was rejected by the North at a previous round of talks on the visit. North Korea wanted him to fly.

Kim's meeting with the North Korean leader in June 2000 began a rapid warming of ties between the two Koreas, which are still technically at war because only a truce was declared at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Kim, who was president from 1998 to 2003, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for orchestrating the meeting in Pyongyang.

Kim Jong-il has yet to reciprocate with a visit to the South.

REUTERS SHB PM1746