[USFK Forums] Seoul Urges NK to Resume Nuclear Talks [Korea Times]

[C. Y. Lee]

[Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Thursday, December 15, 2005]
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Seoul Urges NK to Resume Nuclear Talks

The Korea Times, Wednesday, December 14, 2005
By Seo Dong-shin, Staff Reporter

[PHOTO] Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, right, front row, and Kwon Ho-ung, on his right, a senior Cabinet councilor who leads the North Korean delegation to the inter-Korean ministerial talks, look at a tree at a botanical garden on Cheju Island, Wednesday. / Yonhap

CHEJU ISLAND _ South Korea Wednesday called on North Korea to return to the six-nation talks on the North’s nuclear programs as early as possible. In a keynote speech at the first plenary session of inter-Korean Cabinet talks here, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, the South’s chief delegate, told his Northern counterpart Kwon Ho-ung that holding onto the agreements in the Sept. 19 joint statement would be the ``most effective method’’ to achieve common benefits for the two Koreas.

But the North’s keynote speech focused on inter-Korean relations, calling for more economic cooperation with the South, apparently determined not to tackle the nuclear issue, Kim Chun-sig, the South’s spokesman for the inter-Korean talks, told reporters after the session.

At the end of the fourth round of nuclear talks in Beijing on Sept. 19, the six countries signed a joint statement in which five other countries promised the North economic aid and a security guarantee for its abandonment of nuclear programs.

The latest round of the multilateral nuclear talks recessed in Beijing last month, with participating nations _ the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia _ informally agreeing to resume the talks in January. The four-day inter-Korean Cabinet meeting, which started Tuesday, came as the prospects dimmed for the next round of the nuclear talks after friction developed between the United States and North Korea over allegations of the communist regime’s ``illegal activities’’ such as counterfeiting U.S. dollars and money laundering.

On a bilateral basis, South Korea called on the North to advance efforts to implement the agreements made during previous rounds of inter-Korean ministerial talks, according to Kim. The agreements include general-level military talks and opening of the Kyongui and Tonghae railway lines across the inter-Korean border.

During the hour-long session, the South also put forward three goals for further development in inter-Korean relations, Kim said. They are establishing a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula; curing the remaining scars from the Cold War era by resolving humanitarian issues such as repatriation of South Korean prisoners of war (POWs) during the 1950-1953 Korean War and the postwar abduction of South Koreans to the North; and speeding up inter-Korean cooperation projects to build a joint economic community.

North Korea also presented their goals for next year, while commenting positively on the development in inter-Korean relations made this year which marked the 60th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule and the fifth anniversary of the June 15 inter-Korean Joint Declaration.

In addition to the usual demands to stop criticism against each other and to drop joint military exercises between South Korea and the U.S., the North also called on the South to allow Koreans visiting the other side of the border to go to places freely. ``The North seemed to express discontent at the South Koreans for not taking active steps on this, although the North Korean delegates visited the National Cemetery in the South,’’ Kim said.

The North Korean delegates to the celebrations for the 60th Liberation Day paid an unprecedented tribute at the National Cemetery in Seoul, where South Korean war dead during the Korean War are buried, last August.

The South Korean government has not yet made any return gesture, apparently fearing ideological backlash from the public. The two sides tentatively agreed to hold face-to-face reunion sessions of separated families in March next year. They also discussed ways to cooperate on the North’s bid to register historic sites in Kaesong as UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites.