Working-level officials of South and North Korea will meet this week to prepare for high-level government talks that could help mend their strained ties, government officials said Wednesday.
The preparatory meeting will take place on the North’s side of the truce village Thursday, a step in implementing the August deal on easing military tension.
The two sides are expected to set details of the high-level talks, such as the timing, the venue and the agenda, government officials said.
A key element of the inter-Korean deal on Aug. 25 is to hold high-level government talks as early as possible either in Seoul or Pyongyang.
“We will make efforts to reach an agreement (over the issues) smoothly as we believe that holding working-level talks well would be the first step in carrying out the deal,” Jeong Joon-hee, spokesman at the Unification Ministry, said in a regular press briefing.
Inter-Korean relations have showed signs of improvement as both sides eked out the deal following heightened tension over a land-mine blast blamed on the North in early August. The incident maimed two South Korean soldiers near the border.
The main contentious issues include North Korea’s possible demand for South Korea to resume a long-suspended inter-Korean tour program at Mount Kumgang in the North, experts said.
South Korea is widely expected to raise the issue of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War as Seoul puts top priority on resolving it.
The North has called on the South to resume the Mount Kumgang tour program, a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation as it faces difficulty in earning hard currency.
The tour has been suspended since 2008, following the death of a South Korean female tourist by a North Korean solider at the scenic resort.
Seoul is seeking to hold family reunions on a regular basis as time is running out for separated families, whose number is assumed to be more than 66,000 in South Korea. The North has not responded to Seoul’s call.
The upcoming working-level meeting will flesh out details for high-level talks, but it still remains to be seen whether such talks can be held.
In June 2013, the two Koreas had agreed to hold high-level talks in Seoul, but the meeting was called off a day before it was to be held as North Korea disputed the level of the chief South Korean negotiator.
Seoul hopes that chief negotiators for the high-level talks will be Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo and Kim Yang-gon, Pyongyang’s top party official handling inter-Korean ties.
But experts said that the North may prefer to send a senior official on the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, which Seoul sees as the vice-ministerial level. (Yonhap)
