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Al-Ahed Telegram

North, South Korea Hold Rare Talks

North, South Korea Hold Rare Talks
folder_openKoreas access_time8 years ago
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North and South Korean officials sat down Thursday for rare talks aimed at paving the way for a sustainable high-level dialogue that has constantly eluded the two rivals.

North, South Korea Hold Rare Talks

The meeting at the border truce village of Panmunjom began shortly before 1:00pm [0400 GMT] and marked the first inter-governmental interaction since August when the two sides met to defuse a crisis that had pushed them to the brink of an armed conflict.

That meeting ended with a joint agreement that included a commitment to resume high-level talks, although no precise timeline was given.

Although any dialogue between the two Koreas is generally welcomed as a step in the right direction, precedent offers little hope of a successful outcome.

A similar effort back in June 2013 saw both sides agree to hold what would have been the first high-level dialogue for six years -- only for Pyongyang to cancel a day before the scheduled meeting.

In the end, it was a matter of protocol -- the North felt insulted by the South's nomination of a vice minister as its chief delegate -- that smothered the initiative before it had even drawn breath.

Thursday's talks in Panmunjom will try to avoid a repetition of that failure by thrashing out an agenda, a venue and such protocol issues as who should attend the full-fledged dialogue.

"We will do our best," said Kim Ki-Woong, the head of the South Korean Unification Ministry's special office for inter-Korean dialogue.

"We are resolved to maintaining the momentum for dialogue that was started by the August agreement," Kim said before leaving Seoul for Panmunjom at the head of the three-member delegation.

Likely topics for the eventual agenda include South Korea's desire for regular reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War that cemented the division of the Korean peninsula.

North Korea, meanwhile, will want to discuss the resumption of South Korean tour groups to its scenic Mount Kumgang resort.

"The overall atmosphere for a successful conclusion of these talks is really not that favorable," said Cheong Seong-Chang, an analyst with the Sejong Institute think tank in Seoul.

The two Koreas have held two summits in the past, one in 2000 and the second in 2007.

The United Nations is also understood to be in discussions with North Korea over a visit by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon -- possibly before the end of the year.

Ban had been scheduled to visit in May this year, but Pyongyang withdrew the invitation at the last minute after he criticized a recent North Korean missile test.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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