Vice Unification Minister Hwang Bu-ki, who led the South Korean delegation, told reporters the North Korean delegation kept repeating “that the Mt. Kumgang tours must resume at the same time as the family reunions”.
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It also said that the two sides failed to reach an agreement on a schedule for the next round of talks, indicating a de-facto failure.
“There is no change in our basic position that our government will establish a basis for peaceful reunification by developing inter-Korean relations and having talks with North Korea with an open mind”, he said.
It remains a mystery why the all-female Moranbong Band, along with North Korea’s State Merited Chorus, cancelled just a few hours before they were scheduled to perform Saturday at Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts.
The two Koreas held talks on Friday and Saturday at the Kaesong joint industrial zone on the North’s side of the border. Seoul has claimed that the humanitarian event of family reunion and the tourism project resumption can not be linked together.
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.
According to the North Korean mouthpieces KCNA and the Korean Central TV, the banking officials at the conference discussed strategies to improve the economy by reviewing past “successes and experiences”.
The South Korean side, however, rejected discussion of several core issues including the resumption of the Mount Kumgang tour and made unreasonable assertions, which caused the talks to bear no fruits, the state media said.
Because of South Korea’s position and attitude, it added, the talks ended without anything coming to fruition.
It also cited President Park Geun-hye’s speech on December 1 to Unesco as an issue, saying that the speech had attacked Pyongyang over nuclear threats and human rights issues, and warned South Koreans involved in improving inter-Korean relations to “pay heed to their words and actions”. This round of talks initially raised expectations that this kind of inter-Korean governmental dialogue could become regularized.
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Seoul’s unification ministry has no specific plans yet to make contact for the next round of inter-Korean talks, after negotiations broke down over the weekend.
