North and South Korea Hold Highest-Level Talks in Five Years
By: Administrative Account | Source: Bloomberg
April 23, 2005 6:12AM EST

April 23 (Bloomberg) -- The deputy leaders of North and South Korea, holding the highest-level negotiations between the two nations in five years, agreed talks between the two warring states should be resumed. South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae Chan and North Korea's Kim Yong Nam ``came to an understanding on the need to resume bilateral talks'' when they met on the sidelines of the Asian- African Summit in Jakarta, Choi Byung Hun, a spokesman for Lee's office, said by telephone today. South Korea wants its communist neighbor to abandon its nuclear-weapons program and forge closer economic ties to ease tensions on the peninsula, where more than 1.7 million troops face off along the world's most heavily fortified border. Relations between the two Koreas, which remain technically at war, deteriorated in July when Pyongyang accused Seoul of kidnapping 468 North Koreans who defected to the South. ``It would have been asking too much for the two officials to resolve any bilateral agendas at today's meeting,'' said Jun Bong Geun, director of the Institute for Peace and Cooperation based in Seoul. ``You could see it as the two nations taking baby steps to mend ties.'' This weekend's talks are the highest contact between the two Koreas since North Korean leader Kim Jong Il hosted then South Korean President Kim Dae Jung at a summit in Pyongyang in June 2000. Kim Jong Il agreed to a return summit in Seoul as part of the 2000 accord but never did. Kim Dae Jung won the Nobel Peace Prize for his the summit. Good Reason Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, said North Korea needs a good reason to return to six-party talks aimed at nuclear disarmament, Choi quoted Lee Hae Chan's spokesman Lee Gang Jin as saying during a press briefing held in Jakarta. Premier Lee Hae Chan declined to answer questions about today's negotiations. Kim Yong Nam said North Korea was ready to return to nuclear talks ``when conditions were right,'' Lee Gang Jin said. North Korea pulled out of the six-party talks, which also involve China, Japan, Russia and the U.S., in February when it announced it had nuclear weapons. North and South Korea are technically at war because they didn't sign a peace agreement to end the 1950-53 Korean War. Today's talks, which ran for 40 minutes, followed a 10- meeting yesterday in the Indonesian capital. Dispute North Korea has been embroiled in an international dispute since it told the U.S. in October 2002 it had started a nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994 nuclear non-proliferation accord. In response, the U.S. and its allies stopped shipments of fuel oil. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said at a press conference in Jakarta today that North Korea should refrain from testing nuclear weapons. ``We hope we will be able to persuade (North Korea) so we will not have to take action,'' Annan said, in response to a question on what action, if any, should be taken if North Korea undertakes nuclear tests. The Wall Street Journal today reported that the U.S. warned China that North Korea may be planning a nuclear weapons test. The Journal report, citing an unidentified U.S. official, said the U.S. asked Chinese leaders in Beijing to persuade their communist neighbor to refrain from such action. `Couldn't be Worse' ``The timing couldn't be any worse,'' Hiro Katsumata, a post- doctoral fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore, said in a phone interview. ``If this test takes place, it will have a significant impact on the public nuclear debate in Japan and could create a nuclear escalation in northeast Asia.'' The North Korean government said on Feb. 10 it has nuclear weapons and rejected a fourth round of talks. The nuclear standoff began in October 2002 when the communist nation admitted it was enriching uranium, a possible bomb ingredient, in violation of a 1994 international accord. The country, which needs donations to help feed its 22 million people, may already have 10 nuclear weapons, the Brussels based International Crisis Group estimated in November. The South Korean government said on April 20 it was ``gravely concerned'' over the shutting down of a North Korean nuclear power plant, saying it may mean the North is reprocessing spent fuel and planning to increase its supply of weapons-grade plutonium. `Heavy Price' The two nations haven't held a ministerial level meeting since May 2004. Their scheduled meeting in August failed to take place after the mass defection by North Koreans to the South in July. Pyongyang accused Seoul of kidnapping its citizens and swore that all those involved would ``pay a heavy price.'' North Korea today said South Korean troops fired across the border, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said in a statement, citing military sources. South Korean troops ``fired one shell from their post'' early today, the agency said. The shell posed ``a grave threat to the lives,'' of the North's servicemen, it said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Claire Leow and Sri Jegarajah in Jakarta cleow@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: April 23, 2005 05:48 EDT