North, South Korea to hold rare talks next week

North and South Korea have agreed to hold talks next week as part of efforts to resume a high-level dialogue between the two governments.

Following this pledge, the two countries reportedly agreed on Friday to hold talks on November 26 to focus on easing tension.

Under the terms of the August agreement, Seoul switched off loudspeakers blasting propaganda messages across the border after the North expressed regret over recent mine blasts that maimed two South Korean soldiers.

Regarding North Korean human rights issues Cheong said it is unlikely that Pyongyang will take any meaningful measures. It conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

The South’s Unification Ministry, which handles ties with Pyongyang, said it had accepted the proposal.

Relations between North and South Korea have been both tense and hard since the 2010 sinking of a South Korean warship, an incident South Korea reportedly blamed on the North. Pyongyang reportedly denied any role in the incident.

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

A UN General Assembly committee on Thursday condemned those “gross” violations in North Korea, in a resolution adopted by a record majority.

Pyongyang has attached preconditions to high-level talks in response to Seoul’s previous similar offers.

“Now we’re back on again, the game’s afoot”, John Delury, a North Korea expert at Yonsei University in Seoul, said.

The South has proposed to hold government talks on several occasions following the August 25 agreement that ended a standoff which involved an exchange of artillery fire amid an escalation of tension following landmine blasts at the border. “The South is expected to raise the issue of family reunions”.

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Later that year, the North bombed an island in South Korea, killing four people. But Pyongyang has not responded to Seoul’s call.