North, South Korea talks end without agreement

Two days of high-level talks between North & South Korea stopped Saturday with no breakthroughs, South Korean officers stated, leaving mixed signals about reconciliation efforts the rivals have made since stepping away from a military standoff in Aug.The meeting of vice-ministerial officers within the town of Kaesong wasn’t expected to produce any substantial outcomes, still analysts had thought-about the talks an indication in that the rivals have been working to maintain alive an environment of conversation – one thing they’ve typically did not do within the wake of conflict.

The talks were the first of their kind in two years.

The North wants the South to restart tours to the scenic Mount Kumgang resort, which were stopped by the South in 2008 in response to the shooting of a female tourist by a North Korean guard.

The South’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, was not immediately available for comment.

South Korean officials want to discuss more reunions between aging family members separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. Those included a resumption of talks between senior officials and a new round of reunions for war-separated families, which were held in October.

Hwang Boogi, left, South Korea’s vice minister of unification and the head negotiator for high-level talks with North Korea, shakes hands with his North Korean counterpart Jon Jong Su, right, before their meeting at the Kaesong Industrial Complex in Kaesong, North Korea, Friday, Dec. 11, 2015.

The dispute over the Mount Kumgang tours, a once-lucrative source of cash for the impoverished North, is one of a series of unresolved issues that continue to sour relations on the peninsula.

Now the reunions are being held less than once a year and with only a very limited number of participants – despite a huge waiting list of largely elderly South Koreans desperate to see their relatives in the North before they die. Pyongyang denied any role in the incident.

Among other thorny issues hindering Pyongyang-Seoul ties is the South’s annual drills with the United States.

Pyongyang regards the U.S. meddling as the root cause of the escalating tension between the two Koreas.

The August deal set the stage for the two Koreas to sit down for dialogue, but North Korea’s consistent nuclear and missile test threats have consistently served as negative factors for better inter-Korean ties.

But some said that all doors for further dialogue are not closed as the North still has the motivation to improve inter-Korean relations ahead of the May congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea.