North Korea's chief delegate to the highest-level inter-Korean talks on Friday blamed the South Korean government for the last-minute cancelation of tests of two cross-border railways earlier this week.
Kwon Ho-ung, a senior councilor of the North's Cabinet and chief delegate to inter-Korean ministerial talks, claimed South Korea is solely responsible for the cancellation.
The Koreas were scheduled to test the two railways, one linking Seoul and the North Korean capital Pyongyang and the other connecting the countries' eastern regions, on Thursday for the first time in over half a century.
Pyongyang, however, called off the train runs only one day before they were to take place, citing the lack of an agreement between the countries' militaries for the safety of people taking part in the historic event.
"It was mainly because your military totally sidestepped the solution of pending issues, priorities in ensuring peace on the Korean Peninsula," the North Korean official said in a telegram forwarded to his South Korean counterpart, Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok.
The full text of the telegram was also delivered by the North's Korean Central News Agency from Pyongyang.
During a border meeting between the countries' military officials last week, Seoul tried to arrange an agreement on the safety of inter-Korean travelers using the railways, but North Korean delegates refused to do so, only saying there would be no significant agreement unless Seoul first agrees to set a new border in the West Sea.
The strongly worded letter came one day after Seoul's chief delegate to inter-Korean economic talks, Vice Finance Minister Bahk Byong-won, sent a telegram to his North Korean counterpart to criticize the North Korean government's apparent failure to coordinate its position on the railroad tests with its military.
The South Korean government had earlier claimed the scheduled tests were only temporarily delayed, but said it might reconsider its earlier verbal agreement with the communist state to provide millions of dollars worth of raw material for the North's light industries.
The sides were expected to hold a new round of economic cooperation talks, the 12th of their kind, early next month on the South Korean resort island of Jeju to firm up the agreement, which also refers to the joint development of the North's mineral resources.
"We cannot but call to account such (a) clumsy attitude taken by your side as talking about the issue of providing 'raw materials and other supplies for light industry' and 'materials for railways,' when arguing about the blame for the failure to conduct the trial train operation," Kwon said in the telegram.
Seoul's Unification Ministry confirmed receiving the telegram early Friday, but its spokesman said the ministry had no immediate reaction.
"We still have to see what it really means, but I do not believe there is anything new" in the telegram, Yang Chang-seok told Yonhap News Agency.
The North Korean official also held the Seoul government responsible for recent protest rallies in Seoul and Pyeongtaek, during which protesters burned the North's national flag.
"This unpardonable serious provocation was openly committed in broad daylight at the tacit connivance of your police authorities," the North Korean official said.
"This most serious provocation against our side compels us to interpret it as a clear confirmation in practice of your side's lack of will to get reconciled and cooperate with our side," he added.
The anti-communist rallies in Pyeongtaek came as a reaction to a series of clashes between South Korean police and military authorities and civic activists, who oppose a planned relocation of U.S. forces here to the city located some 70 kilometers south of Seoul.
Seoul, May 26 (Yonhap News)
Pyongyang claims Seoul responsible for canceled railway |
