Ban will not visit North Korea next week

The talks among working-level officials at a border village next Thursday are aimed at preparing for higher-level negotiations the Koreas have agreed to hold, according to Pyongyang’s state media and Seoul’s Unification Ministry.

The two Koreas agreed to hold their first talks since they defused an armed standoff in August with a deal to work on improving fraught ties.

In October 1997, a South Korean court found son Kim Hyun-chul guilty of accepting bribes and evading taxes and sentenced him to three years in prison.

He led South Korea in 1994 when the Clinton administration was considering attacking Nyongbyon – home to North Korea’s nuclear complex – north of communist North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang.

“As an iconic figure of South Korea’s pro-democracy movement, he fought against military dictators for decades and laid the foundation of a peaceful power transfer in a country that had been marked by military coups”, Yonhap reported.

The North later expressed its “deep regret” for the intrusion that left 24 North Korean agents and 13 South Koreans dead.

“North Korea has never reacted to what they call human rights offensives with such major provocative acts as missile launches or nuclear tests in the past, which it thinks would be too disproportionate a reaction”, Yang said.

It has also come under increasing pressure on the human rights front, following a report published previous year by a United Nations commission that concluded North Korea was committing human rights violations “without parallel in the contemporary world”.

Such a move would likely be blocked by China, which has veto power in the council.

The discussions will be the first since August when the two sides agreed to reduce tensions after a landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone injured two South Korean soldiers.

“There is no reason not to hold an inter-Korean summit if a breakthrough comes in solving the North Korean nuclear issue”, Park said.

“But it will be possible only when the North comes forward for a proactive and honest dialogue”, she added.

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

Mr. Ban’s visit to North Korea will be historic if it will happen, and many suggested that the Secretary General does not want to return without achieving positive development particularly on the issue of denuclearization.