Korea restart talks meant to ease animosity

Disagreement over which issue was to be at the forefront was partly what led to the breakdown of the two days of talks.

The meeting was the first forum for high-level discussions over 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.

A media pool report from the meeting venue in the jointly-run Kaesong industrial zone, on the North Korean side of the border, said the talks had ended without a joint statement and no agreed schedule for another round.

They met again for 40 minutes on Saturday morning, before adjourning to consult with their respective capitals.

The second day’s dialogue continued till late night, but suspensions were much longer than the running time of actual talks.

The Korean Peninsula remains technically at war, because the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

As they shook hands on Friday, Hwang said it was time to “take a crucial step”, while Jon underlined the opportunity to move towards a less confrontational relationship.

Although there had been no set agenda for the Kaesong discussions, they were understood to have focused on reviving two cross-border programs.

The North was expected to seek the resumption of cross-border tours from the South to its Mount Kumgang resort, a once-lucrative source of cash for the impoverished state, that was suspended in 2008.

The talks started a day after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un said the country had developed a hydrogen bomb, a claim treated with scepticism by US and South Korean intelligence officials.

South Korea has called for the DPRK to agree upon regular reunions of Korean families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. South Korea has referred to as for more participants and much more usual reunions, as hundreds of people in that had been on the waiting list have already died and lots of others have entered their 80s & 90s, still the North has refused to oblige.

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 the North pressed the South to reopen the tour program in exchange, rejecting Seoul’s offer for separate working-level talks to discuss the issue, he added.

Improving relations with Seoul is a priority for young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who likely wants tangible diplomatic and economic achievements before a convention of the ruling Workers’ Party in May, said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul’s Dongguk University.