Korean Talks End Without Agreement - Wall Street Journal

SEOUL—Midlevel military officials from South and North Korea ended two days of talks Wednesday without agreeing to higher-level discussions, closing for now a slim opening they had created to discuss a flare-up of tensions over the past year.

The outcome wasn't surprising. Statements from the two countries over the past month showed they held vastly different goals for the meeting, and they took several weeks just to negotiate its particulars.

Kim Tae-Hyung/European Pressphoto Agency South Korean Col. Moon Sang-Kyun, left, and North Korean Col. Ri Seon-Kwon walking briskly to their meeting Wednesday

But the prospect of no further talks leaves the U.S., China and other countries in a quandary over how to proceed with North Korea.

The U.S. watched the proceedings for signs that North Korea was willing to discuss difficult issues, which could make it worthwhile for Washington to re-engage with Pyongyang diplomatically. Asked later about the development, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said, "We'll just continue to evaluate what unfolds going forward, but clearly, this was an important opportunity for North Korea to demonstrate its sincerity."

China, North Korea's closest ally, is believed by many outsiders to have pressured it into talking. Beijing is thought to have become angry over Pyongyang's belligerence, most notably after its attack on a South Korean island in November.

Military talks between the rival Korea's stall, dealing a setback to efforts to restart international aid-for-disarmament talks. Video courtesy of Reuters.

North Korea's access to China's economic support may hinge on its ability to demonstrate it isn't going to engage in more tension-raising behavior, said Dan Pinkston, Korea analyst at International Crisis Group in Seoul. "The key question is will this be perceived by the Chinese as a legitimate and sincere effort by the North to reconcile with the South?" Mr. Pinkston said.

The talks, held between colonels of the two sides who had met before, most recently in September, were designed to set conditions and talking points for a meeting of higher-level officials later this month or next. But after the colonels met on Tuesday, a difference was clear. South Korea said it was seeking a ministerial-level meeting while North Korea only wanted deputy ministers to meet.

Yonhap/European Pressphoto Agency The two colonels started Wednesday's talk with a shake but ended without an agreement.

Also, South Korea wanted North Korea to acknowledge—and move toward some form of apology for—its attacks on the South last year, including the Nov. 23 artillery barrage of Yeonpyeong Island, which killed four people, and the March 26 sinking of a patrol ship, which killed 46. Both incidents happened in the area of a maritime boundary that North Korea disputes.

North Korea's representatives at the talks on Tuesday said that South Korea's insistence on talking about those matters amounted to a rejection of the importance of discussions. On Wednesday, North Korea again criticized the South for focusing on the attacks, the South said. North Korea's representative also repeated the country's oft-stated line on the attacks: that it wasn't involved in the sinking and that the island bombardment was the South's fault.

In a statement after the meeting broke up, South Korea's defense ministry said, "We kept our position that we are willing to hold a high-level military talk if North Korea accepts our agenda and level of official."

North Korea on Thursday Asia time issued a lengthy statement blaming South Korea for the collapse of the talks and said it didn't feel any need to meet again. "South Korea pretends to be interested in talk with us, but in their minds they are not," the statement said.

In early January North Korea began a campaign to promote inter-Korean talks, which it officially proposed later in the month. But from the start, its purpose for such discussions was at odds with South Korea's. North Korea's state media repeatedly stated that the talks should "promote the national reconciliation and unity and hasten independent reunification," a phrase that to Pyongyang means control of the South by the North.

That notion is considered ridiculous in the South. But because North Korean officials rarely want face-to-face discussions, South Korea grabs most opportunities, even when little is expected to be achieved. Last week, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak described this week's meeting as merely a test of North Korea's "seriousness for dialogue."

— Jaeyeon Woo contributed to this article.

Write to Evan Ramstad at evan.ramstad@wsj.com

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