2nd LD Writethru: S.Korea, DPRK end talks without any agreement

South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Saturday ended their vice ministers' talks without any agreement, according to Seoul's unification ministry.

The senior-level dialogue, which continued for two days at the DPRK's border city of Kaesong, ended without any joint press conference.

The two sides failed to reach an agreement on a schedule for the next round of the vice ministerial-level talks, indicating a de-facto failure of the talks.

The high-level talks showed signs of differences between the two sides over major issues from the very beginning as the two Koreas failed to reach any agreement during the first day of the talks that lasted from early morning through late night.

The second day's dialogue continued till late night, but suspensions were much longer than the running time of actual talks.

South Korea has called for the DPRK to agree upon regular reunions of Korean families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

Pyongyang has wanted the resumption of tour to the DPRK's scenic resort of Mount Kumgang. The tour, launched in 1998, was suspended in July 2008 when a South Korean female tourist was shot dead by a DPRK solider after allegedly venturing into an off-limit area.

Seoul's three-member delegation was led by Vice Unification Minister Hwang Boo-gi, and his DPRK counterpart was Jon Jong-su, vice director of the secretariat of the DPRK's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea. Enditem