Two Koreas begin high-level talks at DMZ
Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, center, speaks to reporters before departing for DMZ to attend a high-level meeting with North Korea. / Yonhap
The delegations of two Koreas sit down together for a high-level meeting at Panmunjeom, Friday. / Joint Press Corps
South Korea and North Korea began high-level talks Friday to discuss steps to implement the agreement reached by their leaders in their April and May summits.
The high-level talks started at 10 a.m. at the truce village of Panmunjom in the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone that divides the Koreas, according to the unification ministry.
Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon leads South Korea's five-member delegation, including Vice Transport Minister Kim Jeong-ryeol and Vice Culture Minster Roh Tae-kang.
The North's five-member team is headed by Ri Son-gwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country. It also includes Vice Railroad Minister Kim Yun-hyok and Vice Sports Minister Won Kil-u.
The meeting is mainly intended to discuss follow-up measures to the agreements that South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reached in their summits held on April 27 and May 26.
In the Panmunjom Declaration adopted during the April meeting, the two reaffirmed the goal of complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, agreed to halt all hostile acts against each other, open a joint liaison office in the North's border city of Kaesong and vowed various cooperation efforts.
They also promised to hold a reunion of families divided by the 1950-53 Korean War on the occasion of the Aug. 15 Liberation Day.
During the high-level talks, the two Koreas are also expected to discuss details related to arranging joint events to mark the June 15 declaration adopted after the first inter-Korean summit in 2000.
Given that the delegations include officials handling transportation and railroad affairs, it is expected that linking railroads along their western and eastern regions could be on the agenda, as agreed upon in the April summit.
A full-blown cross-border economic cooperation, however, would take time due to multilayered sanctions imposed on the North in the wake of its missile and nuclear tests until late last year, observers said.
"We will have discussions with the North on ways to implement what the leaders of both countries agreed to in the Panmunjom Declaration and the summit held on May 26 in a speedy manner and without a hitch, while creating a positive atmosphere for a summit between the North and the United States," Cho told reporters before leaving for the talks.
The high-level talks were originally scheduled for May 16, but the North abruptly called it off at the last minute, taking issue with joint military drills between South Korea and the United States.
In an apparently hastily arranged second inter-Korean summit last week, the leaders of the two Koreas agreed to hold high-level talks to map out detailed steps to implement the Panmunjom Declaration and agreed to work together to make a North Korea-U.S. summit happen.
A flurry of diplomacy is under way to prepare for a potential summit between North Korea and the U.S., which will likely take place in Singapore on June 12 to discuss denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has reaffirmed his commitment to denuclearization in a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Pyongyang on Thursday and expressed hope for a "stage-by-stage" resolution of the nuclear standoff, according to the North's state media Friday. (Yonhap)