But, unification minister Hong Yong-pyo said Monday, that the government will continue its efforts to realize peace on the Korean Peninsula step by step, and leave the door open for further conversations.
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He didn’t fire a gun or wield a Taser.
The elephant in the room for any North-South dialogue is Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.
To keep last week’s talks going, the South Korean delegates suggested separate talks on Mt. Kumgang, given that the resumption of tours is subject to these conditions.
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. Analysts allege North Korea fears in that its citizens will grow to be influenced by the rather more prosperous South, which might loosen the authorities’s grip on power. None of them has been given a chance to attend a second reunion because the Koreas bar their citizens from visiting each other and exchanging letters and phone calls without special permission. At present, such reunions take place once a year at most, and only a very limited number of people are permitted to take part, despite the many elderly South Koreans who are eager to see their relatives in the North once more before they die.
The deputy ministerial-level talks on ways to improve ties – the first of their kind for almost two years – ended Saturday night after two days of marathon negotiations, with no agreement and no commitment to meet again. This likely ruled out discussions on more important issues. The talks were a rarity for both countries, which have had strained relations since August when land mines injured two South Korean soldiers by the border. The meeting ended without an agreement or plans for further talks.
The talks focused on the resumption of cross-border tours as well as reunion gatherings of families separated by war.
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Meanwhile, South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, expressed regret over what it says is North Korea’s distortion of facts and urged Pyongyang to respond to Seoul’s efforts to move forward inter-Korean ties.
