North Told Venue for Talks Will Not Move

Risking a breakdown in inter-Korean dialogue, South Korea said Sunday that it would not accept a North Korean proposal for a second round of talks on Mount Geumgang tourism at the scenic mountain in the North.

"The future of the second government-level talks for the Mount Geumgang tourist project slated for Friday will determine the outlook for future inter-Korean relations," a high-ranking government official said.

North Korea proposed Saturday in a telephone communique sent through the truce village of Panmunjom that the talks be held at Mount Geumgang, turning down the South's proposal that Mount Seorak be the venue, on the grounds that Mount Geumgang was safe and corresponded to the agenda.

On Friday, Pyeongyang abruptly called off the reunion of separated families that was to be held from Tuesday to Thursday simultaneously in Seoul and Pyeongyang. It said that its citizens would be unsafe in a place under tight security alert. It also canceled a joint taekwondo demonstration that was to be held in Seoul next weekend. But it said it would go through with other scheduled government-level talks if they were held in the North.

"It is difficult for us to accept the rationale," a government official said. "Public opinion would be adverse to the government if it held the Mount Geumgang tourist-project talks, the economic cooperation committee meeting and the next ministerial talks in the locations they demand." The government fears that if it accedes to Pyeongyang's proposal, it would be akin to admitting that South Korea is indeed an insecure place.

But the government decided not to link the food aid to the North with whether talks will be held. It will go ahead with the planned provision of 300,000 tons of surplus rice.

"There are many difficulties and errors in inter-Korean relations, but the 'sunshine policy' is the only alternative we have," President Kim Dae-jung said Saturday. "If we steadily work with patience, we will definitely succeed."

by Lee Young-jong