North, South Korea agree to talks

The South Korean Unification Ministry said on Friday that it had accepted a proposal from the North to hold the talks next Thursday on the northern side of Panmunjom, a village straddling the border.

As part of the deal, Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to high-level talks. The incident maimed two South Korean soldiers near the border. The South said the North’s expression of regret was in effect an apology, although Pyongyang subsequently denied it.

South Koreans who cross into the impoverished, totalitarian North Korea for the objective of defecting are rare. The South accused the North of planting the bombs and, in retaliation, turned on propaganda loudspeakers that had been dormant for years.

Although the focus was on trade and other economic issues, the three declared their “firm opposition” to the development of nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula. It conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

Although things insignificant as mourning over dead and falling asleep during a high-profile military meeting has landed people in the crosshairs of authorities in the hermit state, instances like this shed the light on the wide-scale human rights abuses North Koreans suffer under the dictatorship of Kim Jong-un.

The resolution, which will go to the full General Assembly for a vote next month, encourages the Security Council to consider referring Pyongyang to the worldwide Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

Breaking silence for the South’s repeated offer for dialogue, the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea in charge of daily inter-Korean affairs delivered the message earlier in the day. “North Korea and the United States have a huge gap in positions on the nuclear issue” he said.

Essoungou says discussions are continuing to prepare the groundwork for a possible visit to engage the North on a “human rights dialogue”.

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.