No major breakthrough had been expected from the meeting of vice-ministerial officials in the town of Kaesong, but analysts had considered the talks a sign that the rivals were working to keep alive an atmosphere of dialogue – something they have often failed to do in the wake of conflict.
Advertisement
Hwang said that the South Korean officials made it clear to their North Korean counterparts that it is not proper to link the issues of separated families with the resumption of tours to the scenic mountain resort.
The South’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, was not immediately available for comment. Now the reunions are being organized less than once a year and with only a very limited number of participants.
They are come amid diplomatic shifts in the northeast Asia region that have left North Korea looking more isolated than ever, with Seoul moving closer to Pyongyang’s main diplomatic and economic ally China, and improving previously strained relations with Tokyo.
Among other thorny issues hindering Pyongyang-Seoul ties is the South’s annual drills with the United States.
The South’s Vice Unification Minister Hwang Boo-gi insisted that the two subjects should not be linked as he addressed reporters in Kaesong, just north of the Koreas’ border.
South Korean soldiers gesture to vehicles on the road leading to North Korea’s Kaesong joint industrial complex at a military checkpoint in the border city of Paju on August 21, 2015.
Analysts say North Korea fears that its citizens will become influenced by the much more affluent South, which could loosen the government’s grip on power.
The talks focused on the resumption of cross-border tours as well as reunion gatherings of families separated by war.
Expectations for the meeting dropped last month when both sides in preparatory negotiations settled for a meeting at the vice-ministerial level.
South Korea is also critical of its northern neighbor’s missile tests as well as what it calls nuclear threats, blaming Pyongyang for simmering tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The standoff eased after marathon talks & an agreement on efforts to scale back animosity.
A deal breaker for the talks was a sharp division over dealing with the resumption of a suspended joint tour program at Mount Kumgang on the North’s east coast, analysts said.
Advertisement
“It seems that the negotiators thought it was meaningless for them to continue talking when there was such as large gap between their views”, said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Dongguk University in Seoul.
