In this photo provided by the South Korean Unification Ministry, …
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The South Korean delegation was led by unification ministry official Kim Ki-Woong, and the North’s negotiating team was headed by Hwang Chol from the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea in charge of inter-Korean affairs.
Thursday’s working-level talks came just three months after an agreement was reached at high-level talks in August although it took two months for Pyongyang to respond to Seoul’s invitation.
South Korean tours to the resort were an important source of hard currency, but were suspended when a female tourist was shot dead by soldiers in 2008, allegedly after walking into a military zone.
N orth and South Korean officials are meeting for talks about how to hold higher-level talks that would be the first between the two countries since 2007. The rare meeting is the first intergovernmental interaction since August when the two sides met to defuse a crisis that had pushed them to the brink of an armed conflict.
Others issues that could have been raised include the South Korean May 24 economic sanctions, the resumption of an inter-Korea tourism program to North Korea’s Mount Kumgang region and North-South family reunions.
Kim, a towering figure in South Korea who fought against a succession of dictatorships from the 1960s through the ’80s, died of a severe blood infection and acute heart failure on Sunday at age 87.
Part of the August deal was agreeing to hold a high-level government talk as early as possible either in Seoul or Pyongyang.
North Korea has since expressed “regret” for the blast. North Korea also has a track record of linking humanitarian subjects, such as reunions of families split by the inter-Korean border, to concessions it seeks from South Korea, such as curtailing military exercises.
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South Korea said a new nuclear treaty with the United States that will govern its commercial nuclear activities for the next 20 years is set to enter into effect.
