Koreas keep word by holding high-level talks

By Alex Jensen

SEOUL

Senior government officials from the two Koreas met Friday in an effort to ease bilateral tensions that have repeatedly threatened to spill over into a resumption of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Vice Unification Minister Hwang Boo-gi was representing the South during the talks with his North Korean counterpart Jon Jong-su.

"We hope that various pending issues could be discussed smoothly through consultation," Hwang was quoted as saying by local news agency Yonhap at the start of their meeting just north of the inter-Korean border.

Although the South Korean side had hoped to host the dialogue in Seoul, Kaesong Industrial Complex was chosen as the venue following working-level discussions a fortnight ago -- the North’s facility is unique in that it houses more than 120 South Korean firms and is seen as a last shred holding together Seoul-Pyongyang ties.

Cash-strapped North Korea was expected to try to expand on that spirit of cooperation by pushing to resurrect former projects such as South Korean tours to the Mount Kumgang region, which were put on hold when a visitor was shot dead in 2008.

Building trust has been a key feature of the South’s Park Geun-hye administration, which was reportedly hoping to arrange regular family reunions for relatives separated by the closely-guarded border.

The meeting in itself was an achievement after a period of stop-start communication between the Koreas -- it was the product of an agreement reached in August following a spike in hostilities.

While the talks got underway shortly after 10.30 a.m. (0130GMT), the respective delegates were not expected to find a rapid breakthrough -- even last month’s working-level meeting did not close until around midnight.

Elsewhere, North Korea was facing pressure for its allegedly widespread human rights violations.

The United Nations Security Council convened a meeting on the issue for the second time Thursday -- it was a follow-up on last year, when the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution aimed at referring Pyongyang to the International Criminal Court.

The United States, which hosted the gathering, also reiterated its demand for North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapon plans.

Responding to this week’s claim by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that the reclusive state is ready to unleash a hydrogen bomb, a State Department spokesperson called on the already heavily sanctioned Pyongyang to "comply with its international commitments and obligations".