But Kim asserted this week that North Korea had become “a powerful nuclear weapons state ready to detonate self-reliant A-bomb and H-bomb to reliably defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation”, while visiting the site of a former munitions factory in central Pyongyang, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
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Although any talks between the two Koreas are welcomed as a positive step, precedent suggests any significant breakthrough is unlikely.
Seoul’s three-member delegation was led by Vice Unification Minister Hwang Boo-gi, and NOrth Korea counterpart Jon Jong-su, vice director of the secretariat of North Korea’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea.
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.
The last time the two Koreas had such a meeting to discuss a wide range of issues was in 2007, when the two sent ministerial-level officials to face off at the negotiating table.
Choe told Song that he “hopes that the visit can further consolidate the traditional friendship” between North Korea and China. A source with the South Korean government downplayed the significance of the reports.
The talks came a day after North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un claimed the country had developed a hydrogen bomb.
The agenda for the talks has not been revealed publicly, but the rival Koreas are likely to discuss various pending issues including the reunions of families torn apart by the 1950-53 Korean War and the resumption of a suspended joint tour program.
Now the reunions are being held less than once a year and with only a very limited number of participants – despite a huge waiting list of largely elderly South Koreans desperate to see their relatives in the North before they die.
Park has repeatedly talked up the prospect of eventual Korean re-unification, but has offered little in terms of policy to ease tensions with the perennially belligerent North.
Also on Thursday, the UN Security Council held its second meeting on human rights in North Korea, despite the objections of four countries including China, its main diplomatic and economic backer.
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“We do not believe that North Korea, which has not succeeded in miniaturizing nuclear bombs, has the technology to produce an H-bomb”.
