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Seoul's refusal to discuss core issues leads to failure of inter-Korean talks: DPRK

Xinhua, December 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Saturday blamed Seoul for the breakdown of two-day vice ministerial-level talks held at the border city of Kaesong, claiming that South Korea refused to discuss several core issues.

The official KCNA news agency said that the DPRK side has "made every possible sincere effort" and offered "constructive proposals" to tackle some of the most urgent and realizable issues, such as the resumption of the tour to the DPRK's scenic spot of Mt. Kumgang and reunion of separated families from both Koreas.

But the South Korean side rejected discussion of several core issues including the resumption of Mt. Kumgang tour and made unreasonable assertions, which caused the inter-governmental talks to produce no outcome, the state media said.

South Korean media earlier reported that the senior-level dialogue, which continued for two days at the DPRK's Kaesong Industrial Complex, ended earlier Saturday without any joint press release and that the two sides also failed to reach an agreement on a schedule for the next round of talks, indicating a de-facto failure.

The two sides "did not reach any agreement," Hwang Boo-gi, South Korea's vice unification minister who led the three-member delegation, told reporters at Kaesong.

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 1950-1953 Korean War.

Pyongyang has wanted the resumption of tour to the DPRK's scenic resort of Mt. 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. Endi