North, S. Korea Restart Talks Meant to Ease Animosity

The meeting was the first forum for high-level discussions on a range of issues following an agreement in August that ended an armed standoff involving an exchange of artillery fire across the inter-Korean border.

“In July three years ago, Kim Jong Un watched a demonstration performance of the Moranbong Band and appreciated it for having greatly improved all the musical elements – from theme and formation to arrangement, composition of instruments, technical skill and representation”, KCNA said earlier in the week.

North Korea has built a cult of personality around the Kim family, which has ruled for three generations, and sees any outside criticism or mockery of its leader as an attack on its sovereignty.

They also come amid diplomatic shifts in northeast Asia that have left North Korea looking more isolated than ever, with Seoul moving closer to Pyongyang’s main diplomatic and economic ally China, and improving previously strained relations with Tokyo.

However, the North’s increasingly aggressive posturing has concerned Beijing and observers have pointed to a cooling of relations since the North tested its first atomic weapon in 2006.

The commission of inquiry report detailed wide-ranging abuses in North Korea including prison camps, systematic torture, starvation and killings.

Speaking to reporters at the talks venue, Hwang said the North Korean side had insisted on linking the two issues and making a resolution of the Mount Kumgang question a pre-condition for discussing the reunions.

The meeting at the Demilitarized Zone village began soon after the deadline for North Korea’s ultimatum expired. Instead, President Park Geun-hye of South Korea was an honored guest, standing near Xi and President Vladimir Putin of Russian Federation on the rostrum at Tiananmen Square.

The two countries are technically still at war, as the conflict ended only with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

In October, Liu Yunshan, the fifth-highest-ranking official in the Chinese Communist Party, visited Pyongyang and met with Kim, the most senior Chinese official to do so. It was hailed as a friendship visit and welcomed by state media.

On Chinese social media, Internet users suggested that the abrupt decision may have been related to Pyongyang’s announcement this week that it had developed a hydrogen bomb.

The band’s embrace of Western pop culture and the sexy attire of the members led some North Korea analysts to proclaim in 2012 that Kim, who had just taken power, would adopt a more liberal economic model and quickly open up the country.

Yufan Huang contributed research.