North Korean Delegates Return Home Empty-Handed
By Lee Jin-woo
Staff Reporter
Inter-Korean ministerial talks broke up without making any progress Friday over North Korea's strong complaint against South Korea's decision to withhold this year's rice aid to the impoverished state, officials said.
As a result of the breakup of the 21st Cabinet talks, the thawing inter-Korean relations are likely to face another downturn for the time being.
After holding a plenary session to conclude the meeting, the North Korean delegation left for Pyongyang on a direct charter flight.
The two Koreas managed to issue a joint statement at the end of the four-day talks. However, Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung and his North Korean counterpart Kwon Ho-ung could not even set a date for their next meeting.
``Some people might have been disappointed at the result of the talks, but I'd like to ask them to see the inter-Korean dialogue from a longer term perspective with a bit more patience,'' Lee said at a briefing.
Due to the time-consuming confrontation, the two sides failed to move on to proposed topics including the partial operation of cross-border railways on a regular basis and expansion of inter-Korean economic cooperation projects as well as the resolution of the humanitarian issue of South Korean prisoners of war (POWs).
On Thursday morning, Minister Lee held a closed-door meeting with President Roh Moo-hyun at Cheong Wa Dae, a rare step during high-level talks between the Koreas, according to informed sources.
The hurriedly arranged meeting fueled speculation that Roh might have given instructions on how to deal with the North's demand for rice aid.
Experts on inter-Korean affairs conjectured that the North's delegation could have carried a personal letter from their leader Kim Jong-il.
According to reports, the minister also met with Kim Man-bok, head of the National Intelligence Service, South Korea's intelligence agency, at the talks' main venue, Grand Hilton Hotel, for about three hours Wednesday night.
In March, Lee and Kwon agreed to resume humanitarian and food aid projects. Seoul has shipped fertilizer to the North, but has yet to send rice.
During inter-Korean economic talks in Pyongyang last month, Seoul promised to send some 400,000 tons of rice to the North by today on condition that the North take steps to shut down and seal its nuclear facilities.
Under the Feb. 13 accord of the six-party talks, Pyongyang was supposed to start the denuclearization in return for energy aid within 60 days.
The North, however, failed to meet the April 14 deadline, citing a banking dispute with the United States over $25 million of its funds frozen at a Macau bank, Banco Delta Asia.
In a separate deal, the North Korean money was unblocked, but the communist country has yet to withdraw it.
Shortly after the North conducted missile tests in July, last year, the South suspended food and fertilizer aid. After the North's reckless nuclear test in October, the resumption of aid was blocked.
In retaliation, the communist nation immediately suspended inter-Korean talks and the reunions of families split by the sealed border since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.