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Roundup: S. Korea, DPRK agree to hold working-level contact for inter-gov't talks

Xinhua, November 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) agreed Friday to hold working-level contact next week to discuss the timing, venue and agenda for inter-governmental talks, which the two sides had agreed to hold in late August.

Seoul's Unification Ministry said in a statement that it accepted the DPRK offer to hold working-level contact on Nov. 26 at the Tongil House, an administrative building on the north side of the truce village of Panmunjom.

The DPRK's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) sent the proposal notice earlier in the day to South Korea's Unification Ministry, which in turn sent a consent notice to the DPRK.

The ministry said that the two sides will discuss comprehensive working-level issues during the upcoming contact for an inter-governmental dialogue, upon which the two sides agreed in late August.

Top-level military advisors to South Korean President Park Geun-hye and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un agreed on Aug. 25 to hold an inter-governmental dialogue at an earliest possible date in Seoul or Pyongyang.

The Aug. 25 agreement came as tensions soared on the Korean peninsula after landmine blasts in border areas, which maimed two South Korean soldiers, and a rare exchange of fire across the border.

On the dialogue table at the working-level contact would be the timing, venue, agenda and the rank of chief representatives from the two sides for the inter-governmental talks.

"If the working-level contact is held, the biggest issue is expected to be who will be chief representatives from the two sides," said Cheong Seong-Chang, a senior analyst at the private Sejong Institute think tank.

In June 2013, the two sides had agreed to hold an inter-governmental dialogue, but it had failed to be held at the time amid wrangling over the "rank" of the chief representatives.

Cheong said that if another dispute happen over the rank, improved relations would be hard to see in the foreseeable future.

The working-level contact came about three months after the Aug. 25 agreement that defused military tensions on the peninsula that had pushed the two sides to the brink of an armed conflict.

Seoul had offered to Pyongyang on Sept. 21, Sept. 24 and Oct. 30 each to hold the working-level contact, but the DPRK had refused to accept the proposals, South Korea has claimed.

On Wednesday, Pyongyang denied the Seoul's claim, urging South Korea to drop hostility against the DPRK. Pyongyang accused Seoul of impure intentions to shift responsibility of failure to launch the talks to the DPRK. Enditem