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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North Korean fishing boat seized by South Korea navy ahead of military talks - Telegraph.co.uk

Last month, South Korea's president Lee Myung-bak said he had not ruled out meeting his counterpart Kim Jong-il.  Photo: REUTERS

The incident comes as North and South Korea prepares to hold preliminary 'icebreaker' military-to-military talks on Tuesday to discuss ways of reducing tensions after a year of military exchanges and angry rhetoric between the rival Koreas.

The wooden boat containing 20 women and 11 men was picked up in the Yellow Sea on Saturday close to Yeonpyeong Island where two civilians and two South Korean marines were killed in last November's artillery bombardment.

The North Korean were not family members but part of a "work group", according to the official Yonhap news agency, and had told their interrogators that they were "not willing to remain" in South Korea.

"Our navy captured the boat and the people are being investigated," a Defense Ministry official told the Associated Press in the capital Seoul, adding there was no immediate plans to send the people back.

South Korea has seen a rapid rise in the number of North Korean defectors over the last five years, as North Korea's economy deteriorates to crisis-levels in the face of economic mismanagement and severe UN sanctions imposed after its illegal nuclear weapons and missile tests.

Tuesday's colonel-level talks at the border village of Panmunjom are expected to pave the way for possible defence minister level engagement later this year. Last month, South Korea's president Lee Myung-bak said he had not ruled out meeting his counterpart Kim Jong-il.

The discussions come after a sudden softening of the diplomatic line from North Korea last month offering unconditional talks with the South, however analysts caution that deep suspicions remain between the two sides.

The dialogue comes after diplomatic pressure from China which wants an early resumption of the Six Party nuclear disarmament talks that North Korea walked out of in 2009.

South Korea, backed by the US and Japan, has said it will only resume substantive negotiations with North Korea if it shows it is "sincere" about giving up its nuclear weapons, which many analysts think very unlikely.

South Korea also wants Pyongyang to apologise for the bombardment of Yeonpyeong and for the torpedoing of its warship, the Cheonan last March with the loss of 46 lives – an incident for North Korea denies responsibility.

North Korea is expected to use the talks process to try and bring diplomatic relations back to the point where channels for the food and fuel aid it desperately needs for its economy, can be reopened.

"The discussions during the meeting may help give us a cue on the North's intentions and the overall climate for dialogue," a defence ministry spokesman told the AFP new agency.

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