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2 Koreas, in Sign of Thaw, Agree to Rare Talks at High Level
(about 14 hours later)
SEOUL, South Korea — Senior officials from North and South Korea have agreed to meet on their common border Wednesday in the highest-level government contact between the two Koreas since the North’s nuclear test early last year.
SEOUL, South Korea — Senior officials from North and South Korea have agreed to meet on their border on Wednesday in the highest-level government contact between the two Koreas since the North’s nuclear test early last year.
The rare high-level meeting was another sign of thawing relations on the divided Korean Peninsula. North Korea first proposed it on Saturday, South Korean officials said. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for better relations with the South during his New Year’s Day Speech, and his government has since repeated his overture.
The rare high-level meeting was another sign of slightly thawing relations on the divided peninsula, following a recent agreement to allow scores of families divided by the Korean War to meet. North Korea first proposed the officials’ meeting on Saturday, South Korean officials said.
Kim Kyu-hyun, a first deputy director at the national security bureau in the office of President Park Geun-hye of South Korea, will lead a South Korean delegation to the border, the Unification Ministry said in a statement Tuesday. Mr. Kim, a career diplomat, holds the rank of vice cabinet minister. His office coordinates policies on North Korea and other neighbors.
“There is no preset agenda for this meeting,” said Kim Eui-do, a spokesman for the Unification Ministry. “But we expect to discuss issues of key concern, such as holding reunions of separated families smoothly and making them regular events.”
Won Dong-yon, a veteran North Korean negotiator, will represent his country’s government during the talks at Panmunjom, a border village north of Seoul, the South Korean capital, where the truce ending the three-year Korean War was signed in 1953.
It is unclear why the North is making overtures to the South, or whether they will last. Relations slumped to a nadir last year after the North’s third nuclear test and resulting international sanctions. Since then, attempts for warmer ties have been sporadic, with the North, for instance, agreeing to family visits in August but delaying them in September.
“There is no preset agenda for this meeting,” said Kim Eui-do, a spokesman of the Unification Ministry. “But we expect to discuss issues of key concern, such as holding reunions of separated families smoothly and making them regular events.”
For the moment, reunions are scheduled to be held from Feb. 20-25. If held, the reunions would be the first since 2010, when the humanitarian program was halted amid souring relations.
In a deal that indicated a possible thaw, North and South Korea agreed last Wednesday to hold family reunions from Feb. 20 to Feb. 25 in which hundreds of elderly Koreans would be allowed to meet their relatives from across the border for the first time since the war. If held, the reunions would be the first since 2010, when the humanitarian program was halted amid souring relations.
The North’s agreement to allow for family reunions was unusual because of its timing. North Korea has often refused to discuss or has even canceled talks for such reunions when the South and the United States have staged joint military drills. A new set of joint drills is scheduled to begin Feb. 24. The North did threaten to cancel the visits again last week unless the exercises were called off, denouncing them as a rehearsal for invasion.
But last Thursday, the North abruptly threatened to cancel the reunions, accusing the United States of flying nuclear-capable B-52 bombers on a training mission over the peninsula. It demanded that South Korea cancel annual military drills it was scheduled to begin with the United States on Feb. 24.
South Korea rejected the demand, calling the war games defensive exercises. North Korea made its overture for a high-level meeting of officials days later.
South Korea has rejected the demand, calling the war games defensive exercises. The North denounced them as a rehearsal for invasion.
The representatives at the meeting are set to include Kim Kyu-hyun of South Korea, a career diplomat who holds the rank of vice cabinet minister in the administration of President Park Geun-hye, the Unification Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. Mr. Kim’s office coordinates policies on North Korea and other neighbors.
The North’s agreement to allow for family reunions was unusual because of its timing. North Korea has often refused to discuss or has even canceled talks for such reunions when Seoul and Washington have staged joint military drills.
Won Dong-yon, a veteran North Korean negotiator, will represent his country’s government during the talks at Panmunjom, where the truce that put an end to direct conflict in the three-year Korean War was signed in 1953.
North Korea said last week that when it agreed to family reunions, it considered the wishes of President Park, who has urged the North to prove through “action” that it was sincere with its recent proposals to improve relations.
The South remains deeply skeptical of the motives of the North Korean government, which has provoked Seoul and its allies in recent years by launching long-range rockets and testing nuclear devices in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions banning the county from such activities.
Family reunions remain a highly emotional issue for Koreans and they are considered a key barometer of relations between the two Koreas. The war left millions of people separated from their relatives across the most heavily armed border in the world. No telephone, letter or email exchanges are allowed between the citizens of the two countries. And for the so-called separated families, the occasional government-arranged reunions are often the only chance to meet long-lost relatives.
