A high-level meeting between North and South Korea on Wednesday failed to yield any agreements, with the North Korean delegates rejecting the South’s call to denuclearize and the North seeking a postponement of the South’s military drills with the U.S.A scheduled reunion of families separated by the Korean War—a symbol of bilateral cooperation—faces a possible cancellation. The North said it could not coincide with the joint U.S.-South Korea exercises, slated to begin on Feb. 24.
South Korea has said the biggest U.S.-South Korea drills of the year won’t be affected, a position its delegates maintained at the meeting, according to an official at the Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs.
South Korea is expected to discuss the Wednesday meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry when he arrives in Seoul Thursday afternoon.
Wednesday’s talks, suggested by Pyongyang, represented the most senior-level contact between the two sides since early last year.
Ties have been strained after the North’s third nuclear weapons test in February 2013 and the subsequent shutdown of a jointly-run industrial park inside the North, a key venture for economic cooperation. At the time, the North threatened pre-emptive strikes on both the South and the U.S., protesting their annual joint drills in South Korea. Pyongyang routinely objects to the drills, calling them a rehearsal for invasion.
A year later, the joint exercises—known as Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, and the biggest among other regular drills involving tens of thousands of troops from both sides—are again generating hostile rhetoric from the North.
At the meeting on Wednesday, delegates from the North’s highest military body asked that the drills be delayed until after the family reunions, slated for Feb. 20-25, according to the South’s ministry official.
The North delegates also called the issue of denuclearizing “not a topic for discussion between North Korea and South Korea,” the official said.
The South told the North the matters should be treated separately and the drills would proceed. The U.S. and the South say the exercises are purely for defense purposes.
South Korean Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae told the National Assembly Thursday that he planned to send officials to the reunion venue inside the North as scheduled. A ministry official said the team is expected to leave about five days prior to the reunion.
North Korea hasn’t publicly stated its intentions regarding the reunions since Wednesday’s meeting.
Previous reunions have brought together thousands of family members separated during the Korean War, but the majority of South Koreans who have officially sought reunions have died without seeing their relatives.
The first reunion took place in 1985, and others followed irregularly on both sides of the border in the years after. The first bilateral summit in 2000 resulted in increased cross-border reunions, sometimes by video-chat, until 2010.
That year the North shelled a southern border island, killing two South soldiers and two civilians—and bringing a halt to the reunions.
Another key point of contention for the two sides on Wednesday was their views on press freedom, the ministry official said.
The North has blasted South media’s “slanderous” portrayals of Pyongyang leadership and on Wednesday demanded that Seoul control the media. The South delegates rejected the request, the official said.
Source: Business News India
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