Working-level delegates of the two Koreas met in the border truce village on Sunday and confirmed their plan to hold ministerial talks on Wednesday in Seoul to put their strained relations back on track.
The first formal meeting in 28 months stretched into the night at the Freedom House on the South Korean side of Panmunjeom as the two sides wrestled to fine-tune the agenda, delegation size and itinerary for the higher-level meeting.
“As new governmental dialogue has opened after a long time, both sides have carried out practical consultations in a cooperative and calm manner with no particular argument so far,” Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk said after a morning session.
“It is an agreed premise and common perception that the two sides will hold (minister-level talks) on June 12.”
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South Korea’s chief delegate Chun Hae-sung (right) for the working-level talks with the North shakes hands with his counterpart Kim Song-hye, senior official on the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, at Freedom House in Panmunjeom on Sunday. (Unification Ministry) |
From the South, the ministry’s unification policy chief Chun Hae-sung led the three-member delegation, while the North was represented by Kim Song-hye, a senior official from the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea in charge of cross-border affairs.
The two sides held marathon talks with several breaks in between to decide on the details, including Seoul’s proposal that the North’s minister-led delegation stay more than one day in their visit.
North Korea last Thursday made a surprise overture to hold government-level talks, which the South Korean government welcomed as a positive change of stance achieved through the Seoul government’s steadfast principle of first talking government to government. Seoul, in turn, suggested holding ministerial-level talks in Seoul.
Over the weekend, the two Koreas swiftly moved to hold preparatory talks.
In the first step toward normalization, Pyongyang reopened on Friday a Panmunjeom-based telephone line that had been severed in March amid military tension.
Pyongyang has offered to discuss a raft of bilateral issues including reactivating the suspended Gaeseong industrial complex and resuming a tour program to Mount Geumgang.
Other potential items on the agenda include reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War and celebrations of the June 15, 2000, South-North Joint Declaration and the July 4, 1972, North-South Joint Statement.
The overture followed a months-long gush of the communist regime’s nuclear threats in retaliation for South Korea-U.S. military exercises and the toughest-ever U.N. sanctions over its February atomic test.
It banned South Korean managers and cargo from entering Gaeseong on April 4 and pulled out all of its own 53,000 employees five days later. Seoul withdrew its own workforce early last month.
Officials here see the fresh mood for dialogue as a preface to President Park Geun-hye’s much-touted “trust-building process” designed to reengage Pyongyang while deterring its saber-rattling.
On Monday, the president will for the third time preside over a meeting of foreign, defense and unification ministers at Cheong Wa Dae, where they are forecast to analyze the swift turnaround in North Korea’s behavior and confer how best to prepare for the ministers’ gathering.
“I will make utmost efforts during the meeting based on the spirit of the trust-building process that the two Koreas develop their relations by forging trust starting with the little things,” Chun said before leaving for the joint security area.
By Shin Hyon-hee (
heeshin@heraldcorp.com)
