Two Koreas Agree to Minister-Level Talks on Shut Complex North and South Korea agreed to minister-level negotiations this week to discuss reopening a joint industrial park as both sides seek limited rapprochement following heightened rhetoric over the North’s nuclear program. South Korea will send Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl Jae to the June 12-13 talks in Seoul, the ministry said today in an e-mailed statement. The agenda will focus on reopening the Gaeseong factory shut in April as well as resuming tourism at a North Korean luxury resort, according to the statement. Delegates from both sides met yesterday at the Panmunjom border village to lay the groundwork for the first ministerial talks since November 2007. The meeting offered evidence Kim Jong Un’s regime is looking to ease tensions heightened by its threats of preemptive nuclear strikes after the United Nations tightened sanctions for its rocket launch and atomic bomb test. “It heralds a start to the efforts to restore the inter-Korean relationship,” said Koh Yu Hwan, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul. “The issues at stake are too many and complicated to tackle at once. They should start with easier agreements such as Gaeseong rather than the thorny nuclear program.” The agreement followed a meeting in California between U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, head of North Korea’s closest ally. The two leaders found “quite a bit of alignment” on stopping North Korea’s nuclear program, White House national security adviser Tom Donilon said. bloomberg/news/2013-06-09/two-koreas-will-hold-a-government-meeting-june-12-yonhap-says.html
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 03:01:11 +0000