Roundup: S.Korea, DPRK end vice ministers' 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 on differences over sensitive issues.

The senior-level dialogue, which continued for two days at the DPRK's border city of Kaesong, ended without any joint press release, according to a pool report.

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 two Koreas "did not reach any agreement," Hwang Boo-gi, South Korea's vice unification minister who led the three-member delegation, told reporters in Kaesong. Hwang's DPRK counterpart was Jon Jong-su, vice director of the secretariat of the DPRK's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea.

From the very beginning, the high-level talks showed signs of differences over sensitive issues such as the regular reunion of Korean families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, which Seoul has called for from Pyongyang.

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.

During the talks, the South Korean side put its priority on issues including the confirmation on whether all divided families are still alive and the exchange of letters between the separated families as well as operations of the joint factory park in Kaesong, and the world peace park in the demilitarized zone, which South Korean President Park Geun-hye has proposed to build, Hwang said.

The DPRK side focused mainly on the resumption of the Mount Kumgang tour, calling for the linking of the family reunion issue to the resumption of the inter-Korean tourism project, according to Hwang.

Hwang noted that the South Korean side stressed its position that the humanitarian event on the family reunion and the tourism project resumption are difference in nature and cannot be linked together to discuss.

The Seoul side proposed to hold a separate working-level dialogue on the tourist project issue to secure safety of South Korean tourists, prevent the recurrence of the tourist shooting and other responsible actions by the DPRK, but the Pyongyang side rejected the proposal, Hwang said.

Amid the big differences and the reluctance to make any concessions, the actual length of time for the talks was very short compared to other meetings.

During the two-day meeting, one plenary session was held and lasted for only about 30 minutes. It usually takes more than one and a half hours.

Four contacts between chief delegates, which were held four times, only continued for some 30 minutes each.

Excluding the two and a half hours of talks, the rest of the two days was filled up with suspensions for an internal discussion.

Hwang said that there is no change in the South Korean government's position of laying foundations for peaceful reunification of the two Koreas through continued dialogues, but the inter-Korean ties are expected to get frosty in the short term as no agreement was reached during the inter-governmental talks. Enditem