North, South Korea wrap up high-level talks

“Our government still maintains its basic stance to cultivate a normal relationship between the South and North, and continue conversation with North Korea”, Hwang told reporters.

Improving relations with North Korea has been one of the South’s most confounding challenges over recent decades – Seoul has tried both soft and hard tactics in the years since the 1950-53 Korean War, following which the two sides never signed a peace treaty.

South Korea and the DPRK held vice ministers’ talks in the DPRK’s border city of Kaesong from Friday to Saturday, ending up without any agreement.

The minister attributed it to the North’s “strong demand” for the resumption of the joint tour program to Mount Kumgang on the communist nation’s east coast. Held on the North Korean side of the border in the jointly run Kaesong industrial zone, they were a key element of an accord reached in August to end a unsafe military stand-off. Seoul has insisted on more safety guarantees for South Koreans to prevent a repeat of such an incident. Seoul claimed that North Korea was the first to open fire and the artillery shelling was aimed at South Korea’s propaganda loudspeakers installed nearby.

But the North Koreans refused to discuss any of it until the South agreed to resume package tours to the scenic Mt. Kumgang resort, which until their suspension in 2008 were a substantial cash cow for the regime.

South Korea in turn weighed in on the issue of Korean War-separated families, calling for identification of separated families and exchanges of letters.

The official KCNA news agency said that the Pyongyang side has “made every possible honest effort” and offered “constructive proposals” to tackle some of the most urgent and realisable issues. Pyongyang denies any involvement. The standoff eased after marathon talks & an agreement on efforts to scale back animosity.

Still, a senior official from the Ministry of Unification said on Sunday that the talks had not been completely unproductive.

The official said the talks broke down as the North wanted the South to express a clear position on resuming tourism.