South and North Korea adjourned high-level reconciliation talks Friday night and agreed to meet again the following morning to explore ways of mending frayed ties following cross-border military tensions in August.
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The vice-ministerial talks, which began at 10:40 a.m. Friday at the Kaesong joint industrial complex, were still ongoing as of press time.
South Korean Vice Unification Minister Hwang Boogi met with the North’s Jon Jong Su, a vice director of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, at the jointly-run Kaesong industrial zone a few miles north of their border.
Reflecting on the significance of the Friday talks, the North’s chief negotiator remarked at the beginning that he hoped their meeting “could pave a major way for the two Koreas to march on by getting rid of a big wall of mistrust and confrontation”, which he said had been “hardened” by a lack of communication between the two sides.
Hwang, in response, stressed the significance of the rare formal meeting, which he said may help chart the path for a future reunification if the sides managed to build momentum.
Vice Unification Minister Hwang Boo-gi (L), Seoul’s chief delegate, shakes hands with his North Korean counterpart Jon Jong-su ahead of high-level inter-Korean talks held at the North’s border city of Kaesong on December 11, 2015. “This is Chinese government’s effort to change public’s perception towards North Korean government, which is usually portrayed as dark and abnormal”.
“North Korea threatens worldwide peace and security by expanding its nuclear program and continuing its proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and conventional weapons”, Adam J. Szubin, acting undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a statement. The lack of emphasis suggests the message was most likely intended rhetorically for a domestic audience.
South Korea has placed top priority on resolving the issue of separated families as time is running out for the surviving 66,000 family members in South Korea, most of which are over 80. Those included a resumption of talks between senior officials and a new round of reunions for war-separated families, which were held in October. North Korea has claimed the launch proved it has the capacity to reach the US mainland.
Previous efforts to establish a regular dialogue have tended to falter after an initial meeting – reflecting decades of animosity and mistrust between two countries that have remained technically at war since the end of the 1950-53 Korean conflict. Seoul has also imposed its own punitive sanctions on the North following North Korea’s sinking of a South Korean warship in 2010.
Cash-strapped North Korea was expected to try to expand on that spirit of cooperation by pushing to resurrect former projects such as South Korean tours to the Mount Kumgang region, which were put on hold when a visitor was shot dead in 2008.
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North Korea is ready to detonate a hydrogen bomb to “defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation”, leader Kim Jong Un said Thursday – a threat that remains unsubstantiated.
