Inter-Korean Railway Talks Postponed
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The first inter-Korean dialogue on economic cooperation scheduled for this week has been postponed at the request of North Korea, the Ministry of Unification said Monday.
The North did not reveal the reasons for the request, only citing ``time constraints'' to prepare for the working-level talks, ministry officials said.
The two Koreas were scheduled to hold a working-level meeting in the North Korean border city of Gaeseong Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss railway cooperation projects based on agreements struck during cross-border talks to flesh out inter-Korean summit pacts.
Topics of this week's talks included repairing the North Korean section of a reconnected cross-border railway on the western side of the Korean Peninsula and transporting a joint cheering squad from the two Koreas to the Beijing Olympics by train this year.
Some ministry officials were worried that other scheduled working-level meetings could hit snags.
The North's proposal came as President-elect Lee Myung-bak's transition committee unveiled a plan last week to scrap the Unification Ministry and transfer its functions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The transition team has also made it clear that big-budget inter-Korean business programs would be put on the backburner under the incoming Lee Myung-bak government.
During the summit between President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang last October, a comprehensive package of accords regarding South Korean-backed business programs across the border were produced.
The two Koreas agreed, among others, to establish a ``peace and economic cooperation zone'' in the area near the West Sea.
The special business zone will encompass the estuary of the Han River and North Korea's Haeju port. A few joint fishing areas will be designated around the NLL for vessels from both Koreas and a large-scale industrial complex similar to one in the North's border city of Gaeseong will be built in the area under the plan.
The plan has been controversial as Pyongyang insists joint fishery zones be created south of the NLL, which it does not recognize as the legitimate sea border. The North has demanded that the line be redrawn.
South Korea maintains the firm stance that a rearrangement of the NLL cannot be a matter of discussion, which it sees as a territorial concession.
The NLL has been a flash point for inter-Korean conflicts. The two navies clashed near the crab-rich waters in 1999 and 2002, resulting in scores of casualties on both sides.