SEOUL: 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 re-opened on Friday, the ministry said. The hotline was severed in March as military tensions soared on the divided peninsula.
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 two nations unexpectedly reached a snap agreement Thursday on opening a dialogue, with South Korea responding to a North initiative by offering a ministerial-level meeting in Seoul on June 12.
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. AFP
