North, South Korea Optimistic as Talks Begin

Seoul’s chief delegate for high-level talks with North Korea, shakes hands with his North Korean counterpart Jon Jong-Su (R) during their meeting at the Kaesong joint industrial zone on the North Korean side of the border on December 11, 2015.

Millions of people were separated during the 1950-53 Korean War, which divided the two Koreas.

“There are many issues between the South and the North to be discussed and addressed”.

SEOUL, South Korea-North and South Korea sat down to rare, high-level talks Friday, with each side looking to squeeze concessions from the other on stalled cross-border programmes in which both their leaders have a political stake. “Let’s take a crucial first step to pave the way for reunification”.

The Friday talks were arranged as part of efforts to follow through on an August 25 agreement in which the two sides agreed to hold high-level talks to improve ties.

“There are a lot of issues to discuss between the South and North. (We) will do our best to resolve them one at a time, step by step”, said Hwang Boogi, South Korea’s vice minister of unification and the head negotiator for the talks, before leaving for Kaesong. The last such meeting was held in October.

The talks ran late into the night over three sessions interspersed with lengthy breaks to consult with their respective capitals.

“At this point, the advice that we’ve access to calls into serious question those claims, but we take quite seriously the danger as well as the danger that’s presented by the North Korean regime within their aspirations to create a nuclear weapon”, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told a regular briefing. But while Seoul was expected to raise the issue of denuclearisation, experts said the two sides were focused on more achievable targets.

The talks in Kaesong came a day after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un said the country had developed a hydrogen bomb-a claim greeted with scepticism by United States and South Korean intelligence officials.

A senior North Korean official has said performances by Pyongyang’s all-female propaganda band in Beijing would help improve the “traditional friendship” between the two allies. Analysts have said cash-strapped North Korea might seek the South’s commitment to restart joint tours to its scenic Diamond Mountain resort, which were suspended by Seoul in 2008 following the shooting death of a South Korean tourist there by a North Korean soldier.

Building trust has been a key feature of the South’s Park Geun-hye administration, which was reportedly hoping to arrange regular family reunions for relatives separated by the closely-guarded border.