Hwang Boogi, center, South Korea’s vice minister of unification and the head negotiator for high-level talks with North Korea, speaks to the media before leaving for Kaesong, at the office of inter-Korean Dialogue in Seo…
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The rivals, technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty, had all but cut ties since early 2010, when a South Korean navy ship was sunk by a torpedo that Seoul said was sacked from a North Korean submarine.
There is no fixed agenda for this meeting although South Korea is expected to talk about setting up more reunions for families separated between the two Koreas.
North Korea is critical of the annual military drills between South Korea and the United States, calling them rehearsals for war.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North and South Korea on Friday were set to hold high-level talks at a North Korean border town in their latest step to improve ties after they walked away from a military standoff in August. On 25 August, delegates from both Koreas held lengthy crisis talks and agreed to hold detailed vice-ministerial discussions later. The morning meeting lasted just 30 minutes. The meeting was held on the North Korean side of the border in the jointly-run Kaesong industrial zone – which opened in 2004 and has survived as a rare symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. “Let’s make efforts to break down the barrier, fill up the cracks and make a new and wide road together”, he said. But while Seoul may well raise the issue of denuclearisation, experts said the two sides were likely to focus on more achievable targets.
Meanwhile, North Korea is likely to reiterate its call for the South to resume a joint tour program at Mount Kumgang in the North, which has been suspended since 2008, following the shooting death of a South Korean tourist.
Cheong Seong-Chang, an analyst at the Sejong Institute think tank in the South Korean capital city of Seoul, said, “The outcome this time could have a significant impact on the path the overall inter-Korea relationship takes next year”. “North Korea hasn’t even succeeded at minimizing a nuclear warhead”.
About 71,000 South Koreans, more than half of them elderly people aged over 80, are reportedly on Seoul’s waiting list for an eventual reunion.
The last such sit-down, with the mandate to discuss a range of inter-Korean issues, took place almost two years ago.
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Building trust has been a key feature of the South’s Park Geun-hye administration, which was reportedly hoping to arrange regular family reunions for relatives separated by the closely-guarded border.
