Pyeongyang blinks, invites Seoul to ministerial talks

Seoul regained a bit of face after the North agreed to host the 10th round of minister-level bilateral talks in Pyeongyang on April 27-29. Under domestic political pressure for having grudgingly accepted its exclusion from talks on North Korea’s nuclear program scheduled for this week in Beijing, Seoul had delicately told Pyeongyang that the bilateral talks were the price it wanted for agreeing to send more fertilizer and rice aid.
North Korea proposed the dates for the talks over the weekend and Jeong Se-hyun, Seoul’s unification minister, accepted them yesterday in a message to his counterpart, Cabinet Counselor Kim Ryong-song, through the truce village of Panmunjeom.
North Korea canceled economic cooperation talks scheduled late last month because, Pyeongyang said, of Seoul’s stepped-up security posture and joint military exercises with the United States.
Officials here played up the significance of the agreement. “The North came forward for inter-Korean dialogue, giving the North-South track the appearance of running in parallel with the three-way talks between North Korea, United States and China,” a Unification Ministry official commented.
Seoul is expected to again urge the North to settle the nuclear issue peacefully. It will also have to soothe jangled nerves in Pyeongyang, observers said, about the ongoing investigation into charges that Seoul offered cash to North Korea in 2000 to stage the first inter-Korean summit meeting.
After North Korea demanded a grant of rice and fertilizer from the South, officials here said they wanted the issue to be discussed at a ministerial meeting. Pyeongyang, whose economy continues to crumble even as it resumed its nuclear weapons program, was quick to agree. Other items on the agenda will be the stalled reconnection of north-south railroad links, the construction of an industrial complex in North Korea and ways of stimulating more tourist travel to the North Korean Mount Geumgang tourist area.
Seoul says it is willing to begin delivering 200,000 tons of fertilizer to the north in mid-May. Officials here said the ministers will also arrange for further meetings to discuss a delivery schedule for the 400,000 tons of rice Seoul has said it is willing to provide.

by Lee Young-jong