Resumed ROK-DPRK talks 'a positive sign'

Seoul and Pyongyang held their first high-level talks in seven years on their armed border on Wednesday, further sending positive signals on the possibility of improved ties and the situation on the Korean Peninsula, analysts said.

The Republic of Korea's Unification Ministry said officials from the ROK and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea sat down at the border village of Panmunjom in the morning after Pyongyang made a surprise offer to hold comprehensive discussions on their relations last week.

The ROK delegation was represented by Kim Kyou-hyun, who heads the secretariat of the National Security Council. He said before the meeting that the ROK's priority is to ensure that families separated by the Korean War (1950-53) can be reunited this month as scheduled.

The DPRK delegation was headed by senior ruling Workers' Party official Won Tong-yon, a veteran official specializing in ties with Seoul, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

The DPRK was likely to repeat its demand for the ROK and the United States to cancel their military drills, which are planned to start later this month and overlap with the reunions.

Pyongyang was also expected to demand that the ROK agree to restart a lucrative joint tourism project in the DPRK and to increase humanitarian aid, Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor at Korea University in the ROK, told The Associated Press.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a news briefing on Wednesday that "China welcomes the ROK and the DPRK improving their ties through dialogue."

The meeting is the highest-level one between the two countries since they held a series of meetings in 2007, the Unification Ministry said.

"The meeting this time has a symbolic meaning. For the ROK and the DPRK, high-level direct communication will help to ease the situation on the Korean Peninsula," said Jia Xiudong, a senior researcher of international affairs at the China Institute of International Studies.

Wang Fan, a professor of international affairs at China Foreign Affairs University, said, "Due to complex issues in ROK-DPRK ties, it's hard for Seoul and Pyongyang to make immediate progress in resolving the practical problems between them."

He said the US and the ROK will not cancel their joint military drill, which the DPRK says will threaten its national security.

And Pyongyang will not give up its nuclear policy easily, which the US and ROK say is a security threat to them, he added.

Jia said, "The meeting has not touched the core conflicts in inter-Korean ties, but it offers a communications channel for them and will pave the way for future interactions between the two countries."

The US-ROK Combined Forces Command has announced that the ROK and US will begin their annual joint drills as planned on Feb 24 to improve their joint combat readiness.

On Feb 5, the ROK and DPRK agreed to hold the reunions at Mount Kumgang, a scenic resort on the east coast of the DPRK, from Feb 20 to 25.

But a day after this, Pyongyang said it may reconsider the deal and urged Seoul and Washington to cancel their joint drills.

ROK President Park Geun-hye and other leaders urged Pyongyang to keep the reunions out of humanitarian considerations. On Friday, Pyongyang told Seoul the event will go ahead, but with the number of the family members reduced to 94.

Since Park took office last year, she has been committed to pushing a "peace progress" on the Korean Peninsula, which suggests that Seoul and Pyongyang initiate high-level talks, starting with non-sensitive issues. But until last week, Pyongyang had not responded positively.

Wang said,"Pyongyang always wants to take the initiative on affairs on the Korean Peninsula to show it is powerful and plays a key role in dealing with the issues."

AP contributed to this story.

zhouwa@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 02/13/2014 page12)