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

Xinhua, November 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) are set to hold a working-level contact on Thursday to discuss the timing, venue and agenda for inter-governmental talks, Seoul's unification ministry said.

The preparatory meeting for a ministerial-level dialogue was scheduled to begin at about 10:30 a.m. (0100 GMT) in the Tongil House, an administrative building on the north side of the truce village of Panmunjom.

But, the meeting is being delayed as it takes time to build a temporary communications line in the venue, a ministry official said by phone.

The three-member South Korean delegation was led by Kim Ki-Woong, chief of the unification ministry's special office for inter-Korean talks.

His DPRK counterpart is Hwang Chol, a director of the secretariat at the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea in charge of inter-Korean affairs.

"I'll do my best to sincerely implement the agreements reached during the high-level talks (in August)," Kim told reporters before leaving Seoul for Panmunjom.

During the contact, the two sides will discuss the timing, venue, agenda and the rank of representatives for inter-governmental talks, which the two Koreas agreed in late August to hold in Seoul or Pyongyang at an earliest date possible.

The rank of representatives would be a hot button during the working-level contact. In June 2013, the two Koreas planned to hold a ministerial-level dialogue, but it failed to be held after wrangling over the rank.

South Korea has reportedly called for Kim Yang Gon, director of the DPRK's United Front Department, to become a counterpart of Unification Minister Hong Yong-Pyo during the inter-governmental talks.

The latest ministerial-level talks between the two Koreas were held in Pyongyang from Feb. 27 to March 2 in 2007 and in Seoul from May 29 to June 1 in the same year.

The agreement for the inter-government talks was reached on Aug. 25 when top-level military advisors to South Korean President Park Geun-hye and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un met to defuse tensions that had pushed the Korean peninsula to the brink of armed conflict.

Tensions soared in August after landmine blasts in frontline areas, which maimed two South Korean soldiers, and a rare exchange of artillery fire across the border. Endit