Koreas agree on venue
Source: AFP |
June 9, 2013, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
SOUTH Korea yesterday said the North had agreed to hold working-level talks in the border truce village of Panmunjom this weekend following months of soaring tensions -- the first such dialogue in more than two years.
The two Koreas agreed to send three delegates each to Panmunjom, a traditional point of contact on their border, for talks today aimed at paving the way for higher-level negotiations, Seoul's Unification Ministry said.
Pyongyang conveyed its decision to the South through a hotline between the two sides that was reopened on Friday, the ministry said. The hotline was severed in March as military tensions soared on the divided peninsula.
The two nations unexpectedly reached a snap agreement on Thursday on opening a dialogue, with South Korea responding to a North initiative by offering a ministerial-level meeting in Seoul on June 12.
A spokesman for Pyongyang's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea then suggested initial lower-level talks today in the Kaesong joint industrial zone.
The South's Unification Ministry - using the newly reopened hotline - agreed but said Panmunjom would be a more appropriate venue.
The proposed agenda for the North-South talks involves the re-opening of Kaesong, the resumption of tours to the North's Mount Kumgang resort and renewed cross-border family reunions.
The Kaesong complex, established in 2004 as a symbol of inter-Korean cooperation, was the most high-profile casualty of the recent tensions.
Operations ground to a halt after the North pulled all its 53,000 workers out in early April. The South withdrew its managers and officials soon afterwards.
The two Koreas agreed to send three delegates each to Panmunjom, a traditional point of contact on their border, for talks today aimed at paving the way for higher-level negotiations, Seoul's Unification Ministry said.
Pyongyang conveyed its decision to the South through a hotline between the two sides that was reopened on Friday, the ministry said. The hotline was severed in March as military tensions soared on the divided peninsula.
The two nations unexpectedly reached a snap agreement on Thursday on opening a dialogue, with South Korea responding to a North initiative by offering a ministerial-level meeting in Seoul on June 12.
A spokesman for Pyongyang's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea then suggested initial lower-level talks today in the Kaesong joint industrial zone.
The South's Unification Ministry - using the newly reopened hotline - agreed but said Panmunjom would be a more appropriate venue.
The proposed agenda for the North-South talks involves the re-opening of Kaesong, the resumption of tours to the North's Mount Kumgang resort and renewed cross-border family reunions.
The Kaesong complex, established in 2004 as a symbol of inter-Korean cooperation, was the most high-profile casualty of the recent tensions.
Operations ground to a halt after the North pulled all its 53,000 workers out in early April. The South withdrew its managers and officials soon afterwards.
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