People watch news about the improved relationship between South Korea and North Korea at a train station in Seoul, South Korea, January 3, 2018. (Photo: Xinhua/ VNA) The first official dialogue between the two Koreas in 2 years will focus on the North’s participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics next month, as well as ways to improve inter-Korean relations. Minister Cho said the dialogue will involve issues of mutual concern, including military and humanitarian issues which South Korea raised last year. Ri Son-kwon, chief of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland will represent North Korea in the talks.
SEOUL – North and South Korea held fresh talks on Thursday on reopening a joint industrial zone amid growing concern that their last symbol of peace might be heading for a permanent shutdown. Officials from both sides have already met five times this month but failed to narrow their differences on rescuing the Seoul-invested Kaesong zone in North Korea, suspended since April. "There is a saying that there are mountains and rivers down the road. This explains well the reality facing us," Seoul's chief delegate Kim Ki-woong said at the start of talks at Kaesong. His North Korean counterpart Pak…... [read more]
SEOUL – The two Koreas held fresh talks on Wednesday on reopening a joint industrial park. The two sides have already met for six rounds of fruitless discussions on the future of the park in Kaesong, which was effectively shut down by North Korea in April. An association representing the owners of the 123 South Korean companies based in Kaesong said on Tuesday that the time had come to make a lasting deal on resuming operations. The North had proposed the seventh round of talks last week, just hours after Seoul announced it was going to start compensation payments totalling…... [read more]
SEOUL – South Korea on Wednesday sent a formal request to North Korea calling for talks next week on holding further reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. The message sent by fax across the heavily fortified frontier proposed a meeting on March 12 at the border truce village of Panmunjom, the Unification Ministry said. "We hope that the North will quickly respond to our proposal in consideration of the pain and suffering of the separated families," ministry spokeswoman Park Soo-Jin told reporters. The initiative came a week after the two Koreas wrapped up the first such family…... [read more]
The chief South Korean and U.S. negotiators on North Korea's nuclear program will hold talks in Seoul this week to discuss a range of issues pertaining to North Korea and its nuclear weapons, the foreign ministry here said Monday, source from Yonhap News.The meeting set for Tuesday between South Korea's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Kim Hong-kyun and U.S. counterpart Joseph Yun is the first talk between the top negotiators. Yun took office as the U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy earlier this month.It will be Yun's second visit to South Korea since the appointment…... [read more]
SEOUL — Top-level North and South Korean negotiators talked through the night with no sign of an agreement today for ending a military standoff that has threatened to boil over into armed conflict. After a 10-hour marathon the previous night, the talks passed the 19-hour mark in a second session in the border truce village of Panmunjom, where the 1950-53 Korean War ceasefire was signed. The second round was clouded by South Korean claims that the North was seeking to influence the negotiating process with provocative military movements. South Korea's defence ministry said the North had doubled its artillery units…... [read more]
