Ranking officials from the divided Koreas met in the South Korean port city of Busan Tuesday for the opening of four-day talks, during which Seoul hopes to pressure its northern neighbor to refrain from test-firing any additional missiles and end North Korea's boycott of international negotiations over its nuclear ambitions.
The North's five-member delegation, headed by Kwon Ho-ung, chief councilor of the state's Cabinet, arrived in South Korea's largest port city shortly before 4 p.m. on a direct flight from the North Korean capital Pyongyang.
The highest-level talks between the divided Koreas will run until Friday.
The latest round of the inter-Korean ministerial talks, the 19th of their kind, comes amid the North's prolonged boycott of the international talks over its nuclear weapons program.
The communist state sent ripples of fear through Northeast Asia last week by test-firing seven missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2, into international waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
Seoul's top official on North Korean affairs, Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, and other officials have said security issues would top the agenda of the Cabinet-level talks, which are usually dominated by humanitarian issues, such as Seoul's food and fertilizer aid and other economic assistance for the impoverished North.
"The conditions (around the Korean Peninsula) seem very gloomy like the weather, so the North and South Korea need to pool our strengths to deal with the situation," the unification minister, also the country's chief delegate to the ministerial talks, said while referring to Typhoon Ewiniar that passed through the Korean Peninsula this week, leaving at least six South Koreans dead and three others missing.
"I hope there will be valuable discussions on peace and security in the Korean Peninsula," during the talks, Lee said at his initial meeting with the North's chief delegate at the Westin Chosun hotel here.
Kwon replied with less enthusiasm, saying that "disasters also occur from the outside," although some come from within.
"Typhoons do not only damage the North or the South. The North also suffers damage if the South does," he said.
Officials believe the North's participation at the talks may signal Pyongyang's willingness to make concessions on the nuclear and missile issues, especially after Seoul flatly rejected its request for half a million tons of rice for the time being.
But they also remained cautious, saying their "expectations are not too high."
"(The government) does not have very high expectations that any (significant) compromise will be made" during the inter-Korean dialogue, a ranking government official in Seoul said.
"Although it is difficult to predict whether a compromise will be reached, the government will go to the talks with a clear vision" to resolve the disputes over the North's missile launches and nuclear ambitions, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The communist state has been staying away from the nuclear disarmament talks since a November round, citing what it claims to be U.S. hostility toward its regime.
The nuclear talks are attended by the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia.
Busan, July 11 (Yonhap News)
Inter-Korean cabinet-level talks begin amid missile crisis |
